Peter RalphIDEA award winner Melanie Duc Bo Massey on running an amazing outreach program (Diversity in Nature) while in grad school: a theme is building and finding community. #Evol2023
Connection to a community, identity outside of grad school, values affirmation: besides being awesome for the participants, it was really helpful for the organizers (Melanie and Suchinta Arif).
Final message for students (esp diverse ones): bring your values to the table!
Reassuringly: asked what societies can do: we're on the right track? But: funding for students, and read the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ele.13716
As someone who has zero barriers to joining science, this still really resonates with me: in grad school, my non-academic community was very important for motivation and affirmation.
Teaching is a standard part of grad school, and funded, but organizing outreach programs is usually "extra", what if there was a substantial chunk of funds for it, at the University level? (next: how do we get those funds) #Evol2023
Q: how can we change things? A: a lot of this will have to come from the top: how awards and grants are made, how we're evaluated.