[gwaMIT] gwaMIT Newsletter, November 30th, 2020

Mon Nov 30 14:50:33 EST 2020

gwaMIT Newsletter

November 30th, 2020

gwaMIT General Board Meeting (GBM) + Game Night
When: Wednesday, Dec. 9th, 6:30-8:00PM
Where: Zoom- link will be sent to those who RSVP!
RSVP: here<https://forms.gle/D3Gkzmi6kAkrXCa6A>
Join gwaMIT for our General Board Meeting! You'll get to hear more about gwaMIT and its activities this past semester and meet womxn across departments, including our gwaMIT department reps! After our updates, we’ll also have a game night. We will reimburse up to $10 for dinner! RSVP at the link above.

Ellen Swallow Richards Birthday Party and AMITA & GWAMIT Holiday Party

Register: at this link<https://amita.alumgroup.mit.edu/s/1314/bp19/interior.aspx?sid=1314&gid=20&pgid=55238&cid=90323&ecid=90323&crid=0&calpgid=49590&calcid=76196>
When: Sunday, December 6th 4pm-5pm
Where: The comfort of your own home

This event is co-hosted by the Association of MIT Alumnae (AMITA)

Join us Sunday, December 6th, to celebrate the legacy of Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman admitted to MIT. Not only was she MIT’s first woman graduate, but she was also MIT’s first woman instructor. She was a pioneer in public health and environmental science, whose research helped set the first water-quality standards in the United States.

In 1890, with the help of colleague Mary Hinman Abel, Ellen Swallow Richards founded the New England Kitchen of Boston. This was the dawn of food science as we know it.  To maximize nutrition and minimize cost, they conducted a series of studies and chemical analyses of foods.  Although the New England Kitchen was a short-lived endeavor, it would lay the foundation for the first public school lunch program and the highly successful Rumford Kitchen at the 1891-93 Chicago World's Fair.
Please join us for a recipe inspired trip through Ellen Swallow Richards' life.
Every year, the Association of MIT Alumnae (AMITA) comes together with current students to honor Ellen Swallow Richards birthday (December 3rd, 1842) and celebrate the holiday season. And this year is no different… except that you will be able to join us and learn more about this amazing woman, ESR — from the comfort of your own home! Register to receive the Zoom link by email.

Survey for Spring 2021 gwaMIT Leadership Conference
Please fill out this survey<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkoMpZaucUeu0TxiA3uveBgA37miX0QEsYiRN7HXqfbaa_ig/viewform?usp=sf_link> for gwaMIT's Spring 2021 Leadership Conference. We are interested to hear what kind of events would be most beneficial to our members.

Meet the Department Reps!

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D6C728.265062F0]Bo Chan/ Sloan

Please tell us about your interests and work experience. Prior to Sloan, I worked at Native Union, a consumer electronics company headquartered in Hong Kong. At Native Union, I led the marketing team and collaborated cross-functionally with hardware engineers, designers, and sales managers to launch our products globally. I loved managing cross-functional teams and transforming customer needs into successful products in my previous roles and plan to pursue a product management or product marketing role at a large Tech Company that’s creating impact through innovation.

Who is your favorite womxn from history or the present times, and why? Jane Goodall, she is an inspiring female anthropologist who changed the way the world approached conservation and works to educate youth on the importance of preserving our earth

What do you like about being a gwaMIT Rep? I love working towards making our community more inclusive and being able to share events that help womxn at Sloan feel at home.

[cid:image002.jpg at 01D6C728.265062F0]Camille Farruggio/ DMSE

Please tell us about your interests and work experience. I do materials science research in Krystyn Van Vliet’s group in Cell Therapy Manufacturing. I study human cells and their local environment as responsive materials systems to improve medical treatment development. My current work focuses on the response of human stem cells and immune cells to their environment during growth for treatments.

Who is your favorite womxn from history or the present times, and why? A favorite womxn is very difficult to choose. As an Engineering Physics undergrad, I was impressed by the stories of many female physicists such as Maria Goeppert Mayer, the second woman to win a Nobel prize in physics and the theoretical physicist who proposed the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus.

What do you like about being a gwaMIT Rep? I love meeting involved womxn outside my department and getting a sense for the womxn’s programs that span campus. Coordinating with gwaMIT allows me to help other womxn in my department be more connected to that campus-wide community as well.

Did you know? Here is some womxn-related news from around the world:
Check out artwork by Lainey Molnar on her Instagram page<https://www.instagram.com/lainey.molnar/?hl=en>, advocating for honesty, positivity, and womxn’s empowerment.

Madeline Swegle is the US Navy’s first Black female fighter pilot! Read more about this history-making accomplishment here<https://www.upworthy.com/navys-first-black-female-fighter-pilot>.

The New York Times recently released an article<https://www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/upshot/schools-closing-mothers-leaving-jobs.amp.html>, highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on womxn’s careers and burdens in the home.

Learn about a womxn from history<https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=21475&fbclid=IwAR2yAr4aibxtv3ee2eMVQaTZGbhor5slT4m1uE6jPKOZb1gjWcFr_mOrchU>, physician Sara Josephine Baker, whose work changed the course of public healthcare for children.

Jennifer Lopez delivered an inspiring speech<https://people-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/people.com/music/peoples-choice-awards-2020-jennifer-lopez-icon-of-the-year-speech/?amp=true> at the People’s Choice Awards, speaking of challenges she faced as a Latina womxn in her career and providing a powerful message for young girls around the world.

Read about Gabriella Di Laccio<https://www.thefemalelead.com/post/fighting-for-equality-in-classical-music-meet-gabriella-di-laccio>, award-winning classical music singer, who founded DONNE, which is an international initiative that “celebrates, advances and amplifies women in music”.

Events & Opportunities

  1.  Paid Part-Time AI Teaching Opportunity at Inspirit AI: Winter 2020/Spring 2021 (apply now!)
  2.  Upcoming Cheney Room events (multiple dates)
  3.  Grad Technical Leadership Virtual Workshops (multiple dates)
  4.  Pear Pitch Event (Dec. 2nd)
  5.  GrasshoppHer’s “Using Your Voice” Webinar (Dec. 2nd)
  6.  #BlackInTheIvory: Academia’s Role in Institutional Racism (Dec. 3rd)
  7.  HGWISE Career Paths Panel (Dec. 3rd)
  8.  Latin American Conference 2020: Digital Future in Latin America (Dec. 5th)
  9.  MIT Society of Women Engineers UROP Mixer (Dec. 8th)
  10. HGBC Venture Capital Series: Women in Venture (Dec. 9th)
  11. Grad IAP Workshop on Engineering Leadership (January 2021)
  12. GCWS Spring 2021 Courses (apply by Jan. 3rd)
  13. PhagePro – Scientist Positions Open (apply now!)
  14. Scientists in Solidarity
  15. The Social Scientist Mentorship Program (now!)
  16. STEMxx Chats Interest Form (now!)
  17. Become a gwaMIT Department Rep (now!)
  18. Sign up for the GradDiversity Newsletter!

  1.  Paid Part-Time AI Teaching Opportunity at Inspirit AI: Winter 2020/Spring 2021

Posted Fall 2020

Inspirit AI<http://www.inspiritai.com/> is an education project by a team<http://www.inspiritai.com/team> of grad students from Stanford and MIT focused on bringing AI education to curious high school students globally. This summer and fall, we’ve taught AI to hundreds of high school students from around the world through our live online AI program<https://www.inspiritai.com/liveonline>. Students learn about the technical, social, and ethical challenges of AI, build machine learning models in Python, and complete projects<http://projects> applying AI to social good, from assessing bias in the social justice system to identifying the origins of COVID-19.

We’re seeking students or recent alumni with AI/ML experience to join our teaching team (for a paid, remote instructor role) for our winter and spring programs. We’re looking for:

  *   Experience:  An intro machine learning course (like Stanford CS229/CS230 or MIT 6.036) or equivalent AI project experience. Teaching experience is a plus!
  *   Availability:  most days Dec. 21 - Jan. 3, or once a week Jan. 23 - Apr. 1. Multiple time slots are available.
  *   Enthusiasm: for teaching high school students across the globe and joining the Inspirit community!

We offer competitive compensation, training on teaching our curriculum, and an experienced team<https://www.inspiritai.com/team> from Stanford and MIT.

If interested, please fill out this brief form<https://forms.gle/BH7eBX6x2SLkAqFG7>, and feel free to email adeesh at stanford.edu<mailto:adeesh at stanford.edu> or daniela.inspiritai at gmail.com<mailto:daniela.inspiritai at gmail.com> with any questions. Looking forward to hearing from you!

  1.  Upcoming Cheney Room Events
December events:

  *   Dec 4, @3pm: The Trans History of Video Games. Presentation and video game showcase by Whit Pow, assistant professor of Queer and Trans Media Studies at NYU.
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578336
  *   Dec 3, 10, and 17 @ 12 noon: Virtual Group Workout for Woman-Identified and Nonbinary Students. Led by Emily Lin from MIT Rec.
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578442
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578449
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578453

  1.  Grad Technical Leadership Virtual Workshops (Fall 2020)
The MIT-Gordon Engineering Leadership Program (GEL) and the Graduate Student Advisory Group for the School of Engineering (GradSAGE) encourage you to enhance your MIT graduate experience and enroll in the Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership Program. Attached and linked is a summary of the interim certificate requirements<https://gelp.mit.edu/grad-students/graduate-certificate-technical-leadership-interim-requirements>.
We would also urge you to attend our upcoming Fall 2020 Grad Technical Leadership Workshop Series, which can be used to help satisfy the certificate program requirements. (*Please note— If you are working towards to the Grad Certificate in in Technical Leadership you only need to attend four out of six workshops over the entire course of your time as a grad student.)
All of the following workshops will be held virtually from 5:30-7:30pm EDT:

  *   Technology Roadmapping and Innovation in the 21st Century (Part 2) - Led by Oli de Weck. Tuesday, December 1
Register for the certificate program and/or any or all workshops by emailing Lisa Stagnone (lstag at mit.edu<mailto:lstag at mit.edu>)

  1.  Pear Pitch Event

Practice your startup pitch. Get live feedback from top VCs. No idea is too early. 3 MINUTE PITCHES - NO SLIDES.

December 2, 6:30pm ET. Live via Zoom. RSVP here<https://www.pear.vc/events/pitchmit>.

Pear partners with entrepreneurs from day zero to build category-defining companies. Our team has founded 8 companies and invested early in startups now worth over $40B. We use this knowledge to provide founders with hands-on support in product, growth, recruiting, and fundraising. We have been fortunate to partner early with companies valued at $1B+ such as DoorDash, Gusto, Branch, and Guardant Health. 49% of our portfolio founders were students when we first invested.

We typically provide $100K to $3M to lead preseed and seed rounds  of US and Latam companies across all sectors. We also host an exclusive Accelerator program for 15 teams.

In early 2021 we will launch Pear Competition for MIT, through which we provide $25K uncapped SAFEs.

2 other upcoming events:

Wed 12/02 @ 3:30PM EST
Pitch! Biotech<https://www.pear.vc/events/pitchbiotech>
Helmy Eltoukhy (Guardant Health, CEO)

Wed 01/27 @ 3:30PM EST
Disrupting Healthcare Insurance<https://www.pear.vc/events>
Mario Schlosser (Oscar Health, CEO)

  1.  GrasshoppHer’s “Using Your Voice” Webinar
Last month, GrasshoppHer, a mentorship app for womxn mentors and mentees, focused on the theme of “using your voice”. As we approached the election, some of our community members expressed their voices through voting. Others used their voices through writing, design, business expression, etc. To celebrate our community, we will be capping off the month with a webinar on this topic. Our panel will include Rebecca Chen, VP of Marketing at Speakable/Action Button, Mary Keane-Dawson, CEO of Takumi Marketing and Advertising, and Montana Morgan, Strategy & Operations Manager at ClimateVoice. These women will speak to how you can harness the power of your voices through business communication and negotiation. Join us for this exciting event if you want to learn how to use your voice to advocate for yourself by registering at this link<https://rlink.re/l/49819aac/7477/48df/bf81/88dcf3b65acb>.

Pease submit questions for our panelists here<https://rlink.re/l/b816dbe0/54f1/41e8/b18a/70380ab0082a>. We love hearing from you!

Also, we will send you a recording if you register, which means you can tune in even if the live timing doesn't work for you!

  1.  #BlackInTheIvory: Academia’s Role in Institutional Racism
[cid:image003.png at 01D6C728.265062F0]
Left to right: Dr. Shardé Davis, Dr. Mareena Robinson Snowden, Dr. James Mickens, and Tanya Ballard Brown
For many Black scientists and researchers, working in academia means weathering systemic bias, micro-aggressions, and isolation. Dr. Shardé Davis, a communications researcher at the University of Connecticut, created #BlackInTheIvory this past summer as a platform for discussing the experiences of Black academics. Dr. Davis joins Dr. Mareena Robinson Snowden, a nuclear engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, and Dr. James Mickens, a computer scientist at Harvard University, to examine academia’s role in perpetuating institutional racism and efforts to change those systems. Tanya Ballard Brown, an editor at National Public Radio (NPR), will moderate. This is a virtual event. 
Thursday, December 3, 2020
5:00 – 6:30 pm
Register here<https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0GMGQjZ6T0WDu9B_CvqZZg>: https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0GMGQjZ6T0WDu9B_CvqZZg
Click here for the event page<https://commforum.mit.edu/blackintheivory-academias-role-in-institutional-racism-96af14c37f5f>
Speakers
Dr. Shardé Davis is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut and the creator of #BlackInTheIvory. Dr. Davis’s research examines the way Black women leverage communication in the sistah circle to invoke collective identity, erect and fortify the boundaries around their homeplace, and backfill the necessary resources to return to white/male dominant spaces in American society. Dr. Davis also serves as the Chair of the African American Communication and Culture Division (AACCD) of the National Communication Association.
Dr. James Mickens is the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University, where his research focuses on the performance, security, and large-scale distributed web services. Prior to his work at Harvard, Dr. Mickens spent six years at Microsoft Research where he worked in the Distributed Systems Group. He is currently on the Board of Directors at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Dr. Mareena Robinson Snowden is a senior engineer in the National Security Analysis Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Prior to taking on her current role at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Snowden completed fellowships at the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Nuclear Policy Program. She is the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT.
Moderator: Tanya Ballard Brown is an editor at National Public Radio (NPR), where’s she’s covered families of shooting victims in New Orleans, the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting, and sexual assault against people with disabilities. Ballard Brown was a 2019 Nieman Foundation for Journalism Fellow where she studied how comedic journalism — the intersection of humor, satire, and journalism — can help journalists connect with their audiences and build community. Projects she has edited while at NPR and The Washington Post have been awarded Peabody, Murrow, and Gracie awards, among others.
All Communications Forum events are free and open to the general public. This event is co-sponsored by Radius at MIT<https://radius.mit.edu/>.

  1.  HGWISE Career Paths Panel

Please join us for a panel discussion about academic and non-academic STEM career paths for graduate students! Panelists include speakers from Biogen, Google, Harvard/UC Berkeley, Constellation Pharmaceuticals, and Nabla Bio.

Date: 6pm ET on Thursday Dec 3rd 2020, RSVP: here<https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e5mrhBpWAks3bvv>

A Zoom link will be emailed to individuals closer to the event date.

  1.  Latin American Conference 2020

We invite your community to attend the 2020 Latin American Conference, organized by the LatAm Club at Harvard Business School and LatAm Business Club at MIT Sloan School of Management, taking place on Saturday, December 5th! This year’s conference will focus on the Digital Future in Latin America diving into the opportunities and challenges we have seen and will see in the region.

We’re excited to announce our keynote speakers: David Velez, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nubank, and Sebastian Mejía, Co-Founder and President of Rappi. The complete agenda and list of panelists can be found on our newly launched website.

The conference will take place virtually, so join the conversation from wherever!

Lastly, a big thanks to the conference sponsors we have so far: Mastercard and Grupo Breca

Register using the following link: http://bit.ly/latam-website

info at latamconference.com<mailto:info at latamconference.com>

  1.  MIT Society of Women Engineering UROP Mixer
The MIT Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is excited to host a virtual UROP Mixer the evening of Tuesday December 8th (7-8:30pm EST) for undergraduates to meet graduate students and faculty, and discuss UROP opportunities for IAP/Spring 2021. The event will first feature brief introductions from professors and grad students about their research and available UROP opportunities. Then, we will split everyone into breakout rooms to allow for more detailed discussions. If you are interested in attending, please reach out to shobhita at mit.edu<mailto:shobhita at mit.edu>.

  1.  HGBC Venture Capital Series: Women in Venture

December 9th, 7:30PM ET

RSVP: https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3k0ETnHFoHLXZQN

[cid:image004.jpg at 01D6C728.265062F0]

Join us virtually as we chat with Dr. Johanna Wolfson to learn about her exciting career as a venture capitalist!

Dr. Johanna Wolfson is co-founder and Principal at Prime Impact Fund. Johanna joined Prime Impact Fund from her role as Director of Technology-to-Market in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. She serves as a board member for Prime Impact Fund portfolio companies C-Motive Technologies, Verdox, and Sublime Systems, as well as on the Investor Advisory Board for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the Leadership Council for Innovation Crossroads at Oak Ridge National Lab. Johanna holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from MIT.

  1.  Grad IAP Workshop on Engineering Leadership (January 2021)

Developing Skills in Technical Leadership for a Better World

Date: January 15 (Friday), 2021, 1-4:00pm EDT

Instructor: David Nino, Senior Lecturer and Senior Program Manager, Graduate Program in Engineering Leadership

Enrollment: Limited to 60 MIT graduate students and sign-up by January 8 is required

Prerequisites: None required, but we will assign pre-work in advance of the workshop

Workshop Description:

Do you envision “making a difference” in the future as an engineer or technical expert? If so, you will need more than purely technical skills to build the teams and the support needed to implement your ideas. Employers in both academia and industry consistently rank leadership as among their most sought-after skills, and this is even more true today due to the major challenges and changes we are all facing. As we will discuss, anyone who is motivated to “step up” to these challenges can build leadership skills, but the it takes focus, feedback, and years of practice to become highly effective.

Join us and you will learn how leaders emerge in technology organizations and how you can build valuable skills through our program’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership. In this hands-on workshop, David Niño will be joined by John Strackhouse, Senior Partner in the Board and CEO Practice with Caldwell Partners, and members of the Dean of Engineering’s Graduate Student Advisory Group. Participants will gain skills and perspectives on leadership development and why these capabilities are especially valuable for MIT graduate students.

REGISTER: Email Lisa Stagnone (lstag at mit.edu<mailto:lstag at mit.edu>)

  1.  GCWS Spring 2021 Courses
Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality’s Spring 2021 courses are open to graduate students from any discipline. Applications are due by January 3, 2021 and can be found on our website<https://www.gcws.mit.edu/applications>.  I’m happy to answer any questions.
Women in Science and Academia: Challenges and Policy Solutions<https://www.gcws.mit.edu/new-events/womeninscienceandacademia>
SP21 – Tuesdays, 5:00-8:00PM
Dr. Kathrin Zippel & Dr. Gerhard Sonnert
Using a variety of disciplinary lenses (history, psychology, policy studies, and sociology), this course explores the factors that impede women from successful participation in academia. We focus on the academic workplace and explore organizational factors that create gender inequities in academic careers as well as factors deeply rooted in culture and gender socialization. Furthermore, we discuss programs that promote the advancement of women in academia. A special focus is on science where the underrepresentation of women is most pronounced, and we examine how the situation is different and how it is similar for women in science and women in other academic fields. This seminar is of particular interest for anyone who aims to pursue an academic career and wants to learn about theories of the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) and in academic leadership positions more broadly.
Death and Feminism<https://www.gcws.mit.edu/new-events/deathandfeminism>
SP21 – Wednesdays, 11:00AM-2:00PM
Dr. Jyoti Puri & Dr. Harleen Singh
Death in feminist thought and writing is both a metaphor and a means to unearthing material conditions that place gendered, sexualized and racialized bodies and non-human entities at risk.  Feminists have written extensively on death, highlighting matters such as sexual and physical violence, reproductive politics, colonial and postcolonial genocides, slavery and its wakes, war, the environment, mourning, witnessing, memorializing, funeralizing and deathways, and more.
Drawing on feminist thought from academic and activist literatures, fiction, and performance, this course assembles an archive of readings on death through a geopolitical lens. It engages matters of governance, nationalisms, empire, settler colonialism, slavery, and migration across a variety of sites—Central and Southern Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Middle-East, and North America, while turning to feminist scholarship in Critical Race Studies, Indigenous Studies, Postcolonialism, Queer and Trans Studies, Disability Studies, Environmental Studies, among others.
Feminist Inquiry<https://www.gcws.mit.edu/new-events/feministinquiry2020>
SP21 – Wednesdays 3:00-6:00PM
Dr. Roberta Micallef & Dr. Anne Blaschke
Feminist Inquiry is an interdisciplinary exploration of feminist ways of learning, thinking, collaborating, listening, and speaking in the interest of producing innovative scholarship and meaningful public engagement. Our seminar will study feminist approaches, theories, and epistemologies that form the intellectual framework necessary to conduct feminist research both within and across the disciplines. Students will produce a range of written work based on their course reading and research—for example, primary and secondary source analyses, teaching documents, and an academic article-quality research essay. We will learn to understand and teach our respective research foci through a feminist lens, and to extend this feminist approach into our public engagement outside academia.
Given the range and diversity of feminist inquiry, the course will not attempt to examine all areas of the field; instead, we will study a curated selection of works that range from the classic to the innovative. Throughout the course, we will consider the complexity and multiplicity of modern feminisms while learning to understand the core power dynamics of feminism across place and time.

  1.  PhagePro – scientist positions open!

PhagePro is a discovery-driven venture spun out of the Camilli Lab at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. We aim to use bacteriophages (phages), which are viruses that specifically target and kill bacteria, to prevent bacterial infections. With the unmitigated rise of antibiotic resistance and the known negative consequences of gut dysbiosis caused by broad-spectrum antibiotics, bacteriophages provide a side effect-free alternative for preventing disease in clinical and community contexts.

PhagePro’s CEO, Mimi Yen, is passionate about increasing diversity in the life sciences. PhagePro is currently hiring for two positions: Scientist I and Scientist II. More details about these roles can be found on the company website<https://www.phageproinc.com/>.

  1.  Scientists in Solidarity

Scientists in Solidarity<https://www.scientistsinsolidarity.org/> (SIS) was founded in June 2020 by three Boston-based friends in the life sciences who have championed and supported each other through the difficulties of navigating  spaces that focus on diversity but not inclusion and equity. We created SIS to address the need for a community that supports BIPOC in STEM. During these unprecedented times, we need to show up for each other as #ScientistsInSolidarity.

  1.  The Social Scientist Mentorship Program

The Social Scientist is a nonprofit initiative for career guidance and advice in the STEM fields. In order to provide resources for all, The Social Scientist is an online platform for STEM mentorship. Our core program model aims to provide a global community of higher education students and professionals that are accessible and willing to dedicate their time for mentorship. We are an interdisciplinary group of diverse mentors that engage with young students and advocate for those already immersed in the STEM fields.  https://www.thesocialscientist.org

We connect with mentees in an informal setting to encourage a relaxed and easy conversation. The Social Scientist mentors can speak upon their education, career path and provide valuable insight on the nature of their work. From graduate students to industry directors, all of our mentors have diverse backgrounds and endured their own struggles and success with their career trajectory. We currently have enlisted STEM volunteers from across the world in Academia, Engineering, Industry, Writing/Publishing, US Government, Technology, Mathematics and Alternative Careers. We follow up with every inquirer after their chat to ensure a high-quality interaction with the mentors and establish an ongoing relationship between them and The Social Scientist. Additionally, our mentors have set up ongoing communication with their mentees to provide stable and long-term mentorship. Mentorship is critical at every stage of one’s career and we aim to create opportunities in STEM that are not equally and widely available. Currently, 67% of our mentors are women in STEM.

  1.  STEMxx Chats

STEMxx Chats is helping trainees, especially women in STEM, succeed in their career paths and in life. At MIT, our predominant benefit will be to undergrads and graduate students. We will address key gaps in facilitating their career development with particular emphasis on professional development tricks and soft skills that they’re not getting in any systematic way. We hope to offer mentorship, support and guidance while addressing key gaps in facilitating their career development. We hope to create a group culture that is uniquely focused on the person, has a high positive tone, emphasizes positive impact, and seeks to do this in a sustained way and have personal friendships form as opposed to one-and-done activities. We hope that creating a culturally and academically diverse group at MIT will allow you to share similar experiences while benefitting from the resources and events of the greater STEMxx Chats community. Below is the interest form for those wanting to join. We will host monthly meetings in addition to the broader STEMxx Chats events (eg. panels on career decisions, key speakers from top women in STEM, etc). We also have Twitter and Instagram (@stemxx_chats) for those who want to learn about the latest events.

Feel free to reach out to the organizers (Shirley Chen, schenxy at mit.edu and Mariana Avila, avilam at mit.edu) if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you in the fall.

Website: https://aliceestanton.wixsite.com/aliceestanton/stemxxchats

Interest form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxDhfUz57xILhrgSkIGwUYufkRhrzyxfbRC81wA6pMQByyQA/viewform?usp=pp_url

  1.  Become a gwaMIT department rep!

gwaMIT is accepting applications for the position of department representatives! As a gwaMIT department rep, you'll build connections across MIT and help in the personal & professional development of graduate womxn. It is also a powerful means to bring about department-level change and strive towards a more equitable and inclusive MIT. The position lasts for one year, with an option for renewal. Read more about the role and responsibilities here<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BepM4QWy2tUO7ju1dkIOt69lb9wJb_DIs9Us_ljVqUA/edit>. Fill out the short application form here<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxO1KrUGe7rS_tvZsAW8jOOMFNBnv5BdAi4ssn1svoKUqV9w/viewform>. Womxn who are members of underrepresented and minoritized groups are encouraged to apply. The departments with openings are: Sloan, ChemE, Arch, PolSci, HASTS, Humanities, Writing, NSE, CCWCE, CMS, CSB, MAS, CRE, CCE, CTL, EECS. If the position is currently filled, but you are still interested in being involved with gwaMIT, email us to let us know! We have multiple avenues for engagement in gwaMIT's activities and initiatives.

  1.  Sign up for the GradDiversity Newsletter

The GradDiversity Newsletter is a biweekly newsletter that features events, opportunities, and resources for Graduate Students of Color. You can sign up here<https://oge.mit.edu/graddiversity/graddiversity-newsletter/>!

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees”

-Amelia Earhart

To unsubscribe or change your mailing preferences, please visit: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/gwamit

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