Inclusion at Work: Diversity in Careers

Project Advisor: Erin Massey, Senior Associate Director of Career Services

IEFI Fellow: Aashish Panta

This project is designed to explore DEI in careers around such topics as imposter syndrome, interviewing, employer evaluation, building social capital, self advocacy, and presentation of self. It will also inform students and our community of best practices.

• Explore latest trends of DEI in careers 
• Explore and benchmark best practices at other institutions
• Conceptualize and implement a program on campus that will offer support and education to students from diverse backgrounds on how to navigate their careers. 

 

Belonging and Mental Health 

Project Advisor: Simone Collins, Director, Counseling and Psychological Service | Karen Henry, Dean of First Year Students 

IEFI Fellow: Prince Tardeh, Nzana Thillot

The goal of this project is to identify key factors that affect student sense of belonging across multiple identities at Swarthmore. This project will further explore student concepts of belonging and support students to find healthy approaches in support of their wellness and mental health. This project is in its second year and seeks to implement ideas informed by student participants in year one. 

• Review/analyze information collected in the previous year 
• Establish cross-departmental programs that address some of the factors impacting belongingness and mental health for Swarthmore students.
• Complete planning and Implement a program in support of World Mental Health Day in October.

 

We’ve Always Been Here: History of LGBTQ+ Project

Project Advisor: Tiffany Thompson, Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence 

IEFI Fellow: Julia Stern

In its 3rd year, this project will continue where it left off. The project will centrally document the history of the LGBTQ+ community at Swarthmore College and to think about future work to be accomplished. 

• Review the findings of the last two years and begin to map out a comprehensive and easily accessible multimedia archive that documents the lives and stories of Swarthmore’s LGBTQ+ communities that will build on what already exists at McCabe Library. 
• Work to highlight BIPOC, trans, and non-binary stories that are more than often erased even within the community.

 

Good Trouble & Good Eats

Project Advisor: Michelle D. Ray, Associate Dean and Director of Case Management | Director of the Inclusive Excellence Fellows Initiative

IEFI Fellow: Heidi Berger

The goal of this project is to build a community of commonalities through storytelling and connection. It will examine how our own actions and the actions of others impact our sense of belongingness and explore how to identify and tear down barriers that cause us to feel isolated. This project will encourage participants to expand their personal concepts and begin building foundations for friendships all over good food.

• Host a progressive meal throughout the academic year that will permit a small group of diverse students, faculty, and staff to learn more about each other and challenge themselves to grow together.  
• Creatively guide the participants to chronicle and share their experience with our community.
• Journal the overall experience.

 

Radical Practice of Care

Project Advisor: Ashley Netanel, Health & Wellness Educator

IEFI Fellow: Julie Tan

The purpose of this project is to identify practices of sustainable care for self, community, and across differences especially for those involved in social justice work. Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (and participating in any social justice/activist effort) can be exhausting and stressful work that often falls on the shoulders of marginalized groups who can experience burnout and ultimately disengagement.

• Research skills and practices that can allow the Swarthmore Community who engage in DEI and social justice work to take care of themselves, their communities, and practice care across identities/perspectives. 
• Utilize these practices of care to develop a program that imparts these to increase the capacity for continued DEI involvement.
• Identify campus partners that may have knowledge of or engage in such practices for possible collaboration in creating and facilitating a program, series, or retreat that focuses on the development of essential care skills/practices. 

 

Inclusion at the Core: A Toolkit for SWAT Student Social Life

Project Advisor: Ben Shalk, Assistant Director of Student Activities and Leadership

IEFI Fellow: Mya Chuluundorj

The goal of this project is to engage Swarthmore’s diverse student population and gain a better understanding of student perspectives/feedback/ideas around student social life. This project seeks to  further enhance the overall student experience and develop an inclusive toolkit for student social life that can be shared with the Swarthmore community. 

• Seek student perspectives/feedback/ideas and generate a comprehensive report for the further development of student social life. 
• Provide recommendations based on student feedback to enhance both structured and unstructured programming in the community.
• Develop an inclusive toolkit to accommodate a variety of student voices and diverse perspectives and  assist with the implementation process. 

 

Uncovering Swarthmore’s International Community

Project Advisor: Kathryn Melvin, International Student Coordinator

IEFI Fellow: Moe Htet "Patrick" Kyaw

How long have international students been coming to Swarthmore? What was it like to be an international student 50, 25, 10 years ago and now? How do we continue to strengthen and grow this community? This project hopes to answer these questions and more by capturing and lifting up the experiences, history, contributions and presence of the international community at Swarthmore College. It will examine how the international community has developed over time and seek to tell the stories of international community members, with the intention to continue to build our global community on campus.

• Identify key campus partners in our journey to uncover the history of the international community.
• Collect data from identified campus partners to establish a timeline of key events impacting the international community at Swarthmore.
• Begin work to highlight international community experiences on campus and beyond through storytelling, art and narratives.

 

Community at the Commons

Project Advisor: Rebecca Weintraub-Barth, Director of Student Activities and Leadership

IEFI Fellow: Romina Quinn

With the opening of Swarthmore's very first Student Union, the Sharples Commons provides us a chance to really enhance our student life on campus. This project is designed to be an advanced tool to ensure our commons has inclusive student spaces by exploring best practices for our campus community to assist Swarthmore to build a full and welcoming space.

• Benchmark best practices in the area of inclusivity and representation in student union spaces, and gather feedback or information from current students as to what they might be looking for in the new space.
• Meet with campus partners to find out how best some of these ideas could be actualized.
• Provide a comprehensive list of suggestions for Student Engagement and campus partners to work towards implementing in Sharples Commons (could be immediate and/or thoughts for future projects down the line).

 

Power the Narrative Through Art Project: (P9)

Project Advisor: Chandra Moss-Thorne, Lecturer- Dance 

IEFI Fellow: Tiffany Liang, Kana Nagata

This project’s mission is to examine how art can be used as a form of social justice and better represent artists from marginalized groups. This project will build off the work done over the previous two years.

• Host educational programs that allow the Swarthmore community to engage with different forms of art and artistry, highlighting the history, importance, and/or social impact. 
• Identify and implement other creative ways to engage the Swarthmore community to uplift underrepresented artisans.