BRIDGE: A GRADUATE STUDENT-LED EFFORT TO INCREASE THE DIVERSITY OF SPEAKERS INVITED TO CAMPUS

Abstract

BRIDGE is a graduate student-led initiative at UMass Amherst that aims to increase the number of underrepresented scientists invited to campus through departmental lecture series. BRIDGE provides supplemental funding to facilitate a 3-tiered program for invited scholars which includes a science talk as part of a departmental lecture series, an additional event focused on the Broader Impacts of the scholar’s work, and a mentoring luncheon for graduate students. BRIDGE scholars are early-career scientists that identify with groups that are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. Through BRIDGE, we aim to use the departmental lecture series as a platform to highlight and promote scientists from a range of backgrounds, and allow students to connect with established scientists that may share their identities. The April 2018 inaugural BRIDGE events demonstrated that diversifying a departmental lecture series can be a meaningful facet of a multi-dimensional effort to improve recruitment and retention of underrepresented students, while simultaneously highlighting broader impacts and recognizing the scientific contributions of underrepresented scholars. The 2018-2019 BRIDGE Program brings five scholars to campus from the five departments in the School of Earth and Sustainability, including the Department of Geosciences, over the course of the academic year. BRIDGE can be a template for similar student-led efforts at other institutions. BRIDGE is supported by a UMass Amherst Campus Climate Improvement Grant and the School of Earth & Sustainability.