Inclusive Excellence in Action

Aaron Nix Author

11/08/2023 Added

181 Plays

Description

Inclusive Excellence in Action video compilation produced for the 2023 University of Nebraska–Lincoln State of Diversity event. Learn more about the 2023 State of Diversity report here: https://diversity.unl.edu/state-diversity

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.250](soft piano music)
[00:00:17.125](mellow music)
[00:00:19.416]I've loved science my whole life,
[00:00:21.041]it's always been my favorite subject.
[00:00:23.041]I think that as a woman, often seeing other women
[00:00:25.333]in STEM is something that is very empowering
[00:00:27.833]because it's not something that we hear about very often.
[00:00:30.833]Oh yeah. I gotta go talk
[00:00:31.666]to the founder.
[00:00:32.500]Okay. Today, to see
[00:00:33.333]about recruiting students for the STEM-POWER Program.
[00:00:35.708]Oh, for next semester?
[00:00:37.291]I started working with the STEM-POWER this past summer,
[00:00:40.375]and I was partnered with Dr. Kristi Montooth,
[00:00:43.041]so I work with her in the Fly Lab.
[00:00:45.125]I think that the STEM-POWER program is definitely a focus
[00:00:47.416]on our inclusive excellence
[00:00:48.666]because it brings in underrepresented students
[00:00:50.833]from different communities and kind of allows them
[00:00:53.166]to get familiar with campus life as well as meeting mentors
[00:00:56.416]and faculty members that they could interact with
[00:00:59.166]throughout the school year and beyond that,
[00:01:01.416]and it kind of just helps them get to adjust
[00:01:03.625]to resources that they might not know
[00:01:05.916]that is available for them.
[00:01:08.708]As a first-generation student, it was really hard for me
[00:01:10.750]to find programs that foster an inclusive community,
[00:01:13.416]and the STEM-POWER did that with other students
[00:01:15.458]who I could also relate to.
[00:01:17.333]And I think that oftentimes, students feel
[00:01:19.166]like their voice is not heard.
[00:01:20.791]And I think that faculty members
[00:01:22.208]and campus leaders can just try to let students know
[00:01:25.541]that they have a voice and that their voice can be used
[00:01:28.416]to kind of, I guess, express and communicate the stuff
[00:01:31.166]that they need and the resources that they might need
[00:01:33.708]that faculty members may not know about.
[00:01:35.791]So I think giving students a community
[00:01:37.458]where they feel like their voice is heard
[00:01:39.000]is the most important way for us
[00:01:40.500]to talk about inclusive excellence.
[00:01:44.458]I think that's something
[00:01:45.291]that I'm really passionate about, is inspiring others
[00:01:48.041]to learn about their potential,
[00:01:49.916]especially young girls who often are not encouraged
[00:01:52.291]to go into fields like STEM and sciences.
[00:01:55.250]So it's something that I hope to achieve.
[00:01:56.875]And I also have a younger sister, so I wanna show her
[00:01:59.125]that this is possible and that she can achieve her dreams
[00:02:01.833]and that no one can tell her not to,
[00:02:03.416]because STEM is cool and it's cool for girls as well.
[00:02:06.458](mellow music)
[00:02:12.708]So the Intergroup Dialogue Project is part
[00:02:14.708]of our department's larger initiative on communicating
[00:02:17.583]to connect in a divided world.
[00:02:19.291]It includes courses that we teach, it includes scholarship
[00:02:23.416]and also, working on different projects
[00:02:25.541]or initiatives with the campus and the community.
[00:02:28.125]So I think we all know we live in a polarized world.
[00:02:30.833]We typically, are not really trying to take perspectives
[00:02:34.416]of other people's experiences of their sides,
[00:02:37.458]and we're also not amplifying voices of communities
[00:02:40.750]that historically, have been marginalized.
[00:02:43.166]And that's creating a lot of issues in society.
[00:02:45.708]And what this course tries to do is introduce students
[00:02:48.916]to the theories, the research
[00:02:51.041]and the practice of actually communicating
[00:02:53.000]across difference
[00:02:54.375]in a manner that amplifies voices of those
[00:02:58.083]who haven't had voices,
[00:02:59.750]and also, in a way that really can lead
[00:03:02.250]to pragmatic important outcomes.
[00:03:07.541]Now, we teach this as more than just talk.
[00:03:10.083]You can't just bring people together to talk.
[00:03:12.208]You have to think about the power structures
[00:03:14.916]that come into play.
[00:03:15.750]You have to think about how you can sustain these
[00:03:18.083]so they're not one-off interactions.
[00:03:20.666]And most importantly, you have
[00:03:21.625]to think about how can we make sure there are benefits
[00:03:24.875]and outcomes of this, especially
[00:03:26.333]when people are going to be vulnerable.
[00:03:30.333]I would ideally, like
[00:03:31.625]to see this project inform initiatives across Nebraska.
[00:03:36.541]So whether you're talking about conversations
[00:03:38.708]between different racial ethnic groups, religious group,
[00:03:41.541]rural and non-rural communities, really engage people
[00:03:45.041]across Nebraska to talk with each other,
[00:03:47.000]to learn from each other and better the state.
[00:03:52.125]We live in a polarized world,
[00:03:54.291]we're not talking to each other.
[00:03:55.625]And the only way I believe we're gonna be able to solve
[00:03:58.625]and address our most important issues is if
[00:04:00.875]we engage with each other.
[00:04:02.500]And that's the purpose of this initiative.
[00:04:07.625](insects chirping) (wind gusting)
[00:04:12.833]I can't fully explain it,
[00:04:14.708]but, people around the world are fascinated by birds.
[00:04:18.541]And you can see that from the stories people tell
[00:04:22.041]about the birds around them
[00:04:23.583]and their place in the world.
[00:04:25.375]Over the pandemic, it coincided
[00:04:27.541]with a lot of social movements
[00:04:31.583]about disparities among people and their experiences.
[00:04:35.416]And one of those was about actually, birds.
[00:04:39.291]So we recently got a grant
[00:04:40.666]through the National Science Foundation's program
[00:04:43.291]called BIO-LEAPS.
[00:04:44.666]So this is a grant designed
[00:04:46.250]to harness the unique position of professional societies
[00:04:49.416]in promoting inclusion.
[00:04:51.541]And so, we're studying various aspects
[00:04:54.125]of how having connections
[00:04:56.208]with people like themselves fosters a sense of belonging,
[00:05:00.458]how that can encourage them to pursue the love of research.
[00:05:05.791](Dr. Shizuka murmuring) (mellow music)
[00:05:07.875]So I'm really passionate about getting more people,
[00:05:12.166]specifically women of color, into STEM
[00:05:14.583]and science and field research.
[00:05:17.000]And I feel like birds were just
[00:05:18.875]that common thread of like, "everybody sees birds,
[00:05:22.500]everybody knows what birds are."
[00:05:24.541]So I feel like it's a really good gateway in a sense,
[00:05:27.625]to get people into just being outside
[00:05:30.291]and learning more about wildlife.
[00:05:31.916]And hopefully, it can spark some interest
[00:05:34.958]in some people to go more into STEM
[00:05:37.416]and science and research.
[00:05:38.833]Like here, where it's flat in the terrain,
[00:05:41.916]we don't have a (indistinct) of the ones.
[00:05:44.500]And out in the forest, back here,
[00:05:46.208]we study kind of how the social lives
[00:05:49.583]of birds help them survive these cold Nebraska winters.
[00:05:54.916]They form these really cool things
[00:05:56.291]called mixed-species flocks,
[00:05:57.958]social connections play a big part in animals' lives,
[00:06:01.750]not just humans.
[00:06:02.750]Do you have an extra?
[00:06:03.833]Yeah, we got- You got another set?
[00:06:05.375]We should have two sets.
[00:06:08.541]I actually owe a lot of my ideas
[00:06:12.166]and my thoughts about inclusion
[00:06:13.625]to the connections I've made at the university.
[00:06:16.708]By including everybody,
[00:06:18.916]it makes the university or ornithological societies
[00:06:24.000]or any institution, stronger.
[00:06:26.125]We can't really achieve excellence
[00:06:27.583]without promoting everyone's excellence, I guess.
[00:06:31.208]And to do that, everyone has to buy in
[00:06:34.208]and feel like they belong.
[00:06:36.166]A lot of what we talk about
[00:06:37.416]in ornithology now is this looming sense
[00:06:40.333]that we are losing the diversity of birds.
[00:06:43.125]And this is an all-hands-on-deck situation.
[00:06:45.833]And we can't afford to not include anyone that's got
[00:06:50.458]that passion and that interest in studying nature
[00:06:54.500]and conserving our natural legacy.
[00:06:57.333]And so, from that perspective,
[00:07:00.083]I think it's an urgent need
[00:07:02.875]to really include everyone so that we can solve some
[00:07:06.416]of these global problems.
[00:07:08.916](mellow music)
[00:07:12.875](electronic music)
[00:07:16.583]Inclusive excellence is important to engineering
[00:07:19.125]for two very simple reasons.
[00:07:20.916]First of all, if we're going to meet the workforce needs
[00:07:23.416]of the state and the nation,
[00:07:24.833]we need more people studying engineering.
[00:07:26.750]And that's only gonna happen
[00:07:28.250]if we diversify our student body.
[00:07:30.500]Secondly, it's been documented in several studies
[00:07:33.708]that diverse engineering teams are more productive
[00:07:36.291]and lead to better solutions.
[00:07:37.666]So industry is demanding a more diverse workforce.
[00:07:40.708]It's our job to provide that workforce, so it's important.
[00:07:48.875]We are one of only three colleges
[00:07:50.541]of engineering in the United States
[00:07:52.500]to have received silver recognition
[00:07:54.875]from the American Society of Engineering Education.
[00:07:57.708]We're very proud of that accomplishment,
[00:07:59.416]and other universities are coming to us
[00:08:02.000]to learn about what we did to earn that recognition.
[00:08:06.166]Among our initiatives with respect to inclusive excellence,
[00:08:09.875]include our complete engineer program
[00:08:12.333]that seeks to develop six non-technical competencies.
[00:08:16.375]They include things such as teamwork, communications,
[00:08:19.791]professional ethics and inclusive excellence.
[00:08:27.083]We have created several cohort programs
[00:08:28.958]to diversify our student body.
[00:08:31.375]This includes our Women in Engineering Program
[00:08:33.833]and our Multicultural Engineering Program.
[00:08:36.708]We've also partnered with the Peter Kiewit Foundation
[00:08:39.833]to create the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy.
[00:08:43.666]This amazing program provides the complete cost of education
[00:08:47.375]for 40 students per year,
[00:08:49.416]and is focused on diversifying the engineering workforce.
[00:08:53.708]These are just some of the things that we are doing
[00:08:56.375]to broaden the diversity
[00:08:58.375]of students in the College of Engineering.
[00:09:05.416]We wouldn't have had the success we've had
[00:09:07.625]with respective inclusive excellence if it hadn't been part
[00:09:10.625]of a broader culture change in the college,
[00:09:13.000]and if that hadn't been fully embraced
[00:09:14.583]by our faculty, staff, and students.
[00:09:17.166]And we're fortunate
[00:09:18.041]that we are now a national leader in these efforts.
[00:09:20.666]People are looking to us
[00:09:22.166]to explore how they can have the similar change
[00:09:25.375]within their colleges.
[00:09:27.583]We have lots of work yet to do,
[00:09:29.500]but we're on the right track
[00:09:30.833]and our trajectory is really great.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Inclusive Excellence in Action

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments