Inclusion & Diversity Statement
My Experience as a First-Year Graduate Teaching Assistant
My early experiences in my doctoral program alerted me to the criticality of university inclusion and diversity initiatives and how the lack thereof effects marginalized students navigating campus life and their degree program. In my GTA assignment, as a first-year, first-time instructor, and woman of color, I found myself immediately faced with the intersections of my identities. My assigned class was filled with mostly white male students, and my disidentification with the bodies in the room was much more complex than imposter syndrome. I felt the full weight of my intersections and that heaviness detracted from my pedagogy; in turn, I focused on the performative nature of my role as instructor. I was not afforded an opportunity to reflect on how my intersections inform my teaching experience nor familiarize myself with existing course materials for my technical writing section towards preparedness.
If we can ensure that Black GTAs within our departments are receiving an orientation (or supplemental orientation) that gives them the tools to teach—and support them with navigating through institutional oppressors—then perhaps Black GTAs will feel empowered, locate themselves in their classroom situation, and incorporate intersectionality into their pedagogy.
Attending a Group Counseling Session with Black Graduate Students
Later, in the first semester of my program, I learned that there were other Black graduate women on campus trying to find ways to cope with their graduate program journey and how their intersectionalities informed their experiences. In my own despair, I attended a group counseling session organized by the university’s Black graduate student organization. I was interested in connecting with other Black graduates who may be having similar feelings of uncertainty. In attendance, there were only Black graduate women and two Black women counselors from the university’s counseling center, as mediators for the session.
As these women started to share about their disconcerting interactions with white advisors and peers, the two counselors assisted with processing feelings about their problematic situations. Unfortunately, the next day these same women would face the same issues that reify their invisibility. The women expressed concerns through stories that involved a combination of microaggressions from white classmates and oppressive faculty structures where escalating an issue meant layers of white faculty with personal relationships and familial ties. The commonality from these stories was a lack of university support and guidance to help marginalized students navigate oppressive spaces. This counseling session exposed that the systemic issue of invisibility as a person of color by white peers, faculty, and the institution reduces confidence in a mediation system constructed by a PWI.
Both stories presented here led to my urgency in understanding how the university defines diversity, equity, and inclusion and determine my values and positionality on these initiatives.
Defining Diversity and Inclusion
My perspective on reimagining diversity at Virginia Tech is centered on inclusivity to retain and grow the minority student population. While recruiting is critical to culturally diversifying the student population, my interests are in minority students’ experiences on arrival at VT (a PWI). I am working towards a paradigm shift in campus culture that transitions from the majority conducting business as usual while a diversity task force works tirelessly towards deconstructing systemic racism. With a pivot towards an inclusive campus climate, I imagine minority students experiencing the same empowerment as their white counterparts to have their voices heard within their discipline and across the campus community. If students merely represent a racial category for the benefit of Virginia Tech outwardly appearing diverse when conversely climate checks reveal disconcerted minority students—then there is still a call of action to concretize support for minority students.
Commitment Towards Achieving Equity and Enhancing Diversity
I am the WPA-GO Inclusion Advisory Chair, a graduate employee of the VT Reimagining Diversity Initiative, and focused my graduate research on diversity and inclusion topics. As Inclusion Advisory chair, my goal is to develop resources that GTAs can use for an inclusive pedagogy. At the end of my tenure, my hope is that the potential artifacts developed by the committee are informed by a diverse body of literature and ignites future diversity work long after my term. As a graduate employee of Reimaging Diversity, I gain access to university leadership in diversity-related roles and data useful for my graduate research on anti-racist campus climates.
In my graduate research, I am curious about anti-racist pedagogies using critical mentorship and anti-racist programs. I began conducting cross-disciplinary (higher education and rhetoric) research on Black graduate student experiences at PWIs. Although research exists on the racialized experiences of Black students at PWIs, there is limited research about Black graduate students on these campuses. I argue for critical mentorship and color-consciousness as a shared responsibility amongst all faculty, staff, and advanced graduate students. As I reimagine diversity, we are not only recruiting for diversity but creating an inclusive campus culture through retention that is mindful of the wellness of all students’ as they matriculate.
Pedagogical Practices
PWIs should sponsor students in all disciplines to understand how diversity, inclusion and cultural are appropriate topics that inform their work. In my GTA assignment, I recognized a gap in instruction on diversity and inclusion, or more specifically, cultural sensitivity. My materials science and engineering students are inventing products for global consumers but lack cultural sensitivity. Understanding that discussing culture in engineering is unpopular, I found a way to incorporate addressing culture without burdening instructors with a new course topic. I updated an assignment rubric for my students’ major project that requires them to answer culturally sensitive questions. This practice ensures appropriate research about their product consumers.
My graduate experiences as a student of color, my affiliations with diversity programs, my preliminary graduate research, and my application of diversity concepts in curriculum are culminating factors that are preparing me as a driving force in establishing inclusive campuses.
My early experiences in my doctoral program alerted me to the criticality of university inclusion and diversity initiatives and how the lack thereof effects marginalized students navigating campus life and their degree program. In my GTA assignment, as a first-year, first-time instructor, and woman of color, I found myself immediately faced with the intersections of my identities. My assigned class was filled with mostly white male students, and my disidentification with the bodies in the room was much more complex than imposter syndrome. I felt the full weight of my intersections and that heaviness detracted from my pedagogy; in turn, I focused on the performative nature of my role as instructor. I was not afforded an opportunity to reflect on how my intersections inform my teaching experience nor familiarize myself with existing course materials for my technical writing section towards preparedness.
If we can ensure that Black GTAs within our departments are receiving an orientation (or supplemental orientation) that gives them the tools to teach—and support them with navigating through institutional oppressors—then perhaps Black GTAs will feel empowered, locate themselves in their classroom situation, and incorporate intersectionality into their pedagogy.
Attending a Group Counseling Session with Black Graduate Students
Later, in the first semester of my program, I learned that there were other Black graduate women on campus trying to find ways to cope with their graduate program journey and how their intersectionalities informed their experiences. In my own despair, I attended a group counseling session organized by the university’s Black graduate student organization. I was interested in connecting with other Black graduates who may be having similar feelings of uncertainty. In attendance, there were only Black graduate women and two Black women counselors from the university’s counseling center, as mediators for the session.
As these women started to share about their disconcerting interactions with white advisors and peers, the two counselors assisted with processing feelings about their problematic situations. Unfortunately, the next day these same women would face the same issues that reify their invisibility. The women expressed concerns through stories that involved a combination of microaggressions from white classmates and oppressive faculty structures where escalating an issue meant layers of white faculty with personal relationships and familial ties. The commonality from these stories was a lack of university support and guidance to help marginalized students navigate oppressive spaces. This counseling session exposed that the systemic issue of invisibility as a person of color by white peers, faculty, and the institution reduces confidence in a mediation system constructed by a PWI.
Both stories presented here led to my urgency in understanding how the university defines diversity, equity, and inclusion and determine my values and positionality on these initiatives.
Defining Diversity and Inclusion
My perspective on reimagining diversity at Virginia Tech is centered on inclusivity to retain and grow the minority student population. While recruiting is critical to culturally diversifying the student population, my interests are in minority students’ experiences on arrival at VT (a PWI). I am working towards a paradigm shift in campus culture that transitions from the majority conducting business as usual while a diversity task force works tirelessly towards deconstructing systemic racism. With a pivot towards an inclusive campus climate, I imagine minority students experiencing the same empowerment as their white counterparts to have their voices heard within their discipline and across the campus community. If students merely represent a racial category for the benefit of Virginia Tech outwardly appearing diverse when conversely climate checks reveal disconcerted minority students—then there is still a call of action to concretize support for minority students.
Commitment Towards Achieving Equity and Enhancing Diversity
I am the WPA-GO Inclusion Advisory Chair, a graduate employee of the VT Reimagining Diversity Initiative, and focused my graduate research on diversity and inclusion topics. As Inclusion Advisory chair, my goal is to develop resources that GTAs can use for an inclusive pedagogy. At the end of my tenure, my hope is that the potential artifacts developed by the committee are informed by a diverse body of literature and ignites future diversity work long after my term. As a graduate employee of Reimaging Diversity, I gain access to university leadership in diversity-related roles and data useful for my graduate research on anti-racist campus climates.
In my graduate research, I am curious about anti-racist pedagogies using critical mentorship and anti-racist programs. I began conducting cross-disciplinary (higher education and rhetoric) research on Black graduate student experiences at PWIs. Although research exists on the racialized experiences of Black students at PWIs, there is limited research about Black graduate students on these campuses. I argue for critical mentorship and color-consciousness as a shared responsibility amongst all faculty, staff, and advanced graduate students. As I reimagine diversity, we are not only recruiting for diversity but creating an inclusive campus culture through retention that is mindful of the wellness of all students’ as they matriculate.
Pedagogical Practices
PWIs should sponsor students in all disciplines to understand how diversity, inclusion and cultural are appropriate topics that inform their work. In my GTA assignment, I recognized a gap in instruction on diversity and inclusion, or more specifically, cultural sensitivity. My materials science and engineering students are inventing products for global consumers but lack cultural sensitivity. Understanding that discussing culture in engineering is unpopular, I found a way to incorporate addressing culture without burdening instructors with a new course topic. I updated an assignment rubric for my students’ major project that requires them to answer culturally sensitive questions. This practice ensures appropriate research about their product consumers.
My graduate experiences as a student of color, my affiliations with diversity programs, my preliminary graduate research, and my application of diversity concepts in curriculum are culminating factors that are preparing me as a driving force in establishing inclusive campuses.