March 21, 2023
Outstanding Graduate Student Service award
I’m so grateful to be recognized by my department for my various service activities during my 5 years as a graduate student here. My work with the URGE pod and my DEI work as a GSM featured heavily in my nomination, and I have faith that my colleagues will continue to strive for positive changes in the University. They have a great team ready to face the challenges that lie ahead.
January 1, 2023
Student Resources Canvas Module Live
Aligned with URGE pod goals, I’ve been working with Michela Arnaboldi to put together a directory of university-based resources on nondiscrimination, advocacy, physical and mental health, and community building that instructors can add to their course pages via Canvas Commons. The goal is to make students aware of the supports they can access as they go through their undergraduate and graduate careers. We hope this will make information more accessible to all students, but especially those without generational knowledge of university campuses and culture. We’ve already got instructors adding the module to their course websites!
August 26, 2022
New DEI content in First Year Orientation
My team and I made some changes to the structure of new grad student/new grad student instructor orientation this year in response to feedback from last year. One thing I was excited to make space for more discussion of DEI during orientation.
We presented students the results of the Department DEI committee’s self study on department climate as perceived by undergrads. This helped us understand what kinds of gaps exist between our ideals as a department and students’ current experiences. GSIs were identified as critical influences for undergrads, since they tend to work even more closely with GSIs than faculty instructors.
We also had a full hour-long module reflecting on how our identities influence our comportment in the classroom and how our students engage with us. We provided resources and discussion of best practices for creating a welcoming and anti-racist classroom environment. I hope that these modules will stay with orientation in future years when I’m no longer lead Graduate Student Mentor.
December 10, 2021
Final Wellness & Inclusion workshop of the semester
I’ve been working with fellow grad student Cecilia Howard and postdoc Sara Rivera to put on a series of workshops this semester. This initiative was born out of the Michigan Earth URGE pod. Check out our lineup:
Know Your Rights on Campus
Overview & Responding to Disclosures of Sexual Misconduct
Counselling and Psychological Services 101
Engendering Respectful Communities Workshop
LGBTQ Allyhood Development Training
Community Collections with URGE
November 19, 2021
Intersectionality and Identity with First Year Grad Students
The Graduate Chair for our department asked me and postdoc Sara Rivera to facilitate some candid discussions about intersectionality and identity with the first year grad students during their extended orientation seminar. We did some reflective activities where students could brainstorm about different facets of their identities and privileges, how their identities affect their walks through academic spaces, and what agent and target identities they embody. It was a very vulnerable but productive discussion (participation in group discussion was wholly optional). We ended off with some strategies for self care and work-life balance, because let’s be honest, every new grad student needs to hear that as early as possible.
Of course we weren’t there presenting as expert scholars on the topic; we’re still learning and growing in our own self-awareness. We were just there as peer facilitators who happened to have access to some of these resources, and I think the outcomes were solid.
January-May, 2021
Michigan Earth URGE Pod 1
My colleagues from Michigan Earth and I were part of the American Geophysical Union’s first “pods” in the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience program. Every week we had insightful discussions about the assigned readings as we moved through the curriculum. We all collaboratively pulled together the deliverables for the entire curriculum. This was SO productive. We have dozens of specific short-, medium-, and long-term goals to move on as a group. I’ll be continuing to advance some of these goals in my remaining years in the department.
Deliverables:
Group Norms & Pod Agreements
Policy for Dealing with Complaints
Statistical Analyses of Program & its History
Policies for Working with Communities of Color
Admissions and Hiring Policies
Lab and Field Code of Conduct
Asset Map of Resources to Combat Racism
Policy Booklet with Summary
July 13-16, 2020
SpeakOut Summer Institute
I attended The Institute for Democratic Education & Culture’s SpeakOut Virtual Summer Institute. We heard excellent insights from higher education professionals and scholars of Color about how classroom teachers can contribute to a radical reimagination of higher ed. I learned a lot from listening to the panel discussions and will definitely be returning to my scores and scores of notes as I continue as an educator and a scientist in general. There was a major emphasis on praxis, and it gave me a lot of tools to work with going forward. I’m very grateful to the organizers, panelists, and other participants who made this so instructive!
Dr. Allison Nicole Curley 