Diversity Preview Weekend 2018

This coming weekend, diverse students from across the country who are interested in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Entomology and Plant Sciences will be coming to Cornell to learn about our graduate programs and be given the tools and inspiration!! to apply to join us in their graduate studies.  I’m honored to be part of the process, and excited to meet these students and learn about their passions for research, for teaching & mentoring, and for becoming the next generation of scientists who will be empowered to change the face of academia moving forward.

You can find out more about Diversity Preview weekend here.  If you are an undergraduate, apply for next year!!!  If you work with undergraduates who you would like to see continue with graduate school and careers in academia, please encourage your students to apply.  The ‘previewers’ get to workshop all aspects of graduate school applications, including identifying programs of interest, contacting faculty, writing personal and research statements, and taking advantage of undergraduate research opportunities or summer internships.

In this PDF, you can see the 2018 attendees and read about their interests and passions.  So often you hear that the reason our graduate programs are not more diverse is because …”students from diverse background just aren’t interested in Evolution [, or Plant Biology, or Ecology].”  “Its not that we don’t accept them, or that we don’t have metrics that enable students from diverse backgrounds to rise to the top of our applicant pool…” – we say – “It’s that they don’t apply.”  This places the blame firmly on them, and relieves us of having to take any initiative.  However, this excuse demonstrates a clear lack of effort on our part to recruit students to apply, to make them aware of our programs, to let them know they are qualified, and to provide aspiring undergraduates with the tools and resources necessary to apply with confidence.  Diversity Preview Weekend is a fantastic first step in addressing many of the gaps that have, year after year, prevented us from successfully diversifying our graduate programs and creating an inclusive environment for graduate study.

So here they are:  These are our future graduate students, postdocs, colleagues and collaborators.