Teachers are important figures in the lives of young people. We hold positions of significant authority and influence, and can set expectations and conceptions that can follow our students throughout their educational experience. This authority and influence carries with it a great responsibility, both to our students as well as to our broader society. I believe that higher education is, at its core, a service in the interest of the general public. Learning can intrinsically enrich all peoples’ lives and provide increased opportunity for people to pursue different kinds of livelihoods that might interest them. In order for this to be possible, though, our learning environments must be spaces of inclusivity, acceptance, and antiracism.
To be effective in the service of the general public, higher education has to be representative of that general public. There are far too many peer-reviewed studies and statistics to list here that clearly outline the problem of a higher education instructional workforce that is predominately male and white or Asian, and disproportionally from higher-class backgrounds, out of step with an increasingly diverse nationwide community of students and residents. Importantly, too, the work to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education cannot end after the hiring process.
Although my own identities are not underrepresented in STEM or higher education, I do have a strong commitment to doing that work. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, I organized with many other students to draft a set of demands that resulted in the Northwestern University Department of Materials Science creating a new DEI committee with elected representatives from all major stakeholders in the department community (students, faculty, and staff). I was elected as the undergraduate representative for that committee for my senior year of college, and helped advocate for making antiracism a departmental priority. To this end, the committee was able to allocate departmental resources toward a bridge program to attract and prepare underrepresented applicants for the graduate program. We were also able to make some changes to the faculty hiring process, so that the undergraduate and graduate representatives also had an opportunity to interview faculty candidates with an emphasis on teaching and mentorship rather than purely research. While only a step in what will inevitably be a long process, I was nonetheless very proud to have had a role in that collective effort.
I have continued my commitment to antiracism and diversity in my graduate program. During my first year, I joined my student worker union, the Student Workers of Columbia UAW Local 2710, and helped organize the chemistry department for our collective campaign to win our first contract with Columbia University. This contract included much-needed raises, improved pay parity across academic programs, and access to neutral third-party arbitration for cases of discrimination and harassment, which was a first for student worker unions in the US. These are material wins that tangibly help make higher education more accessible and supportive for underrepresented identities and socioeconomic classes, and will hopefully help bring more diverse people into the field of higher education.
I have also tried to actively incorporate antiracism in my teaching and mentorship as a graduate student. My teaching philosophy is centered around the idea that anyone can do science with the proper time and support, and all of my practice is centered around the goal of giving students from all backgrounds the confidence that they can learn and pursue science if it interests them. Additionally, I have mentored multiple students from underrepresented backgrounds, where I seek to cultivate their confidence and agency rather than simply see them as a second pair of hands to help out.
Fundamentally, I want to make sure that I always make diversity initiatives and antiracism the priority that it needs to be for meaningful positive change to occur. Even as mainstream zeitgeists and momentums shift and wane, teachers will always be able to have a positive impact on their students by consistently working towards improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in our classrooms, workplaces, and communities.