Creating Pathways of Kindness and Inclusion in STEM Education by Dr. Mica Estrada
Channel: Michelle Pacansky-Brock
Date: 2022-05-17

Keynote presentation by Dr. Mica Estrada from the Humanizing Online STEM Summit on May 4, 2022.  Our current societal reality provides opportunities to change patterns of exclusion and inclusion in STEM. Traditional STEM education has focused on providing knowledge as the way to integrate people into an academic community, but data shows that not all people became equally integrated into this academic community, despite knowledge acquisition. With this in mind, Dr. Estrada will describe findings from her research program in which she has longitudinally tracked and examined what types of mentorship, training experiences and supports result in students integrating into their professional fields and persisting in STEM career pathways.  Her research focuses on the experiences of persons historically excluded because of ethnicity and race.  Further, she will describe practical actions that educators and institutions can take to provide kindness cues that affirm social inclusion. These actions can positively impact the integration experience for historically underrepresented college students, faculty and administrators in STEM training and professional settings.