2025 - 2026 Projects

CIL2: Connecting Inclusive Leaders to the Center for Innovation and Leadership

Project Advisor: Susannah Fishman, Director, Center for Innovation and Leadership & Dakota Gibbs, Assistant Director, Center for Innovation and Leadership 

Fellow: recruiting

This project explores the ways in which the Swarthmore Community engages with the Center for Innovation and Leadership (CIL) intending to maximize access and awareness of their services beyond the current audience, with a particular focus on underserved students. The fellow will assess current usage trends, identify key constituents, collect data, and propose potential solutions. 

Project Objectives

  1. Offer 2 -3 collaborative events on campus with different student organizations
  2. Connect with different constituent groups to identify community understanding and usage of the CIL
  3. Share recommendations to meet identified population’s needs
  4. Pilot solutions that increase access, awareness, and desire to use the CIL (i.e. enhancing language in promotional materials, creating new programs, etc.)
  5. Record interactions with students and work collaboratively with CIL Interns to achieve stated goals
  6. Increase percentage of new students engaging in CIL services

Disability Identity, Community, and Support at Swarthmore

Project Advisor: Andrea Vassar, Director, Student Disabilities Services  

Fellow: recruiting

This project is dedicated to fostering a more inclusive campus culture that recognizes, uplifts, and celebrates the contributions of the disabled community. Through research, dialogue, and active engagement, the Fellow will explore the lived experiences and challenges faced by students with disabilities, identifying barriers to accessibility and opportunities for meaningful change at Swarthmore.

Project Objectives

  1. Identify opportunities to improve accessibility across academic spaces, student organizations, housing, and campus services.
  2. Equip faculty, staff, and students with the language, awareness, and practical tools to embed accessibility into daily interactions, institutional policies, and campus initiatives.
  3. Explore the history of disability on campus and facilitate conversations that encourage the understanding, value, and integration of disability as a natural aspect of Swarthmore’s community. 

Good Trouble & Good Eats

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

Fellow: recruiting

The goal of this project is to build community 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 build foundations for friendships despite differences, all while sharing a meal with community members. 

Project Objectives:

  1. 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.
  2. Creatively guide the participants to chronicle and share their lived experiences with our community.
  3. Journal and creativity share the overall experience.

Inclusion by Design: Philly’s IC Collaborative

Project Advisor: Wade Manora Jr., Director of the Intercultural Center

Fellow: RECRUITING

The IEFI Fellow for Inclusion by Design: Philly’s IC Collaborative project will work in partnership with Swarthmore’s Intercultural Center and Penn’s Greenfield Intercultural Center to identify opportunities to enhance programing, collaboration, and community impact and engagement of their centers beyond their respective campuses. Through research, the fellow will explore and assess current practices, and propose and pilot innovative experiences to increase impact (i.e. collaborative program, field trip, speaker series, etc.). Thereafter, expanding this model to creatively include ICs in various greater Philadelphia institutions to develop a lasting IC collaborative.

Project Objectives

  1. Learn and understand the inner workings and program offerings of the Swarthmore and Penn ICs. Connect with current students, alumni, and local community members to understand current barriers and opportunities to impact.
  2. Research 4-5 similar sized peer institutions in the greater Philadelphia Area to understand best practices and high-impact programs for Intercultural Centers and intercultural student audiences.
  3. Brainstorm and pilot 1-2 new opportunities for Swarthmore and Penn’s Intercultural Centers to collaborate beyond their campuses.
  4. Develop a consortium of 3-6 ICs in the Greater Philadelphia area to enhance communication and evolve synergy of work through strategic alliances.

Redefining Wellness: The Spiritual Awakening Project ~ Year 2

Project Advisors: Sabrina LaBelle, Protestant Student Advisor, Interfaith Center

This project builds on the work of a prior IEFI fellow to learn more about the campus climate around spirituality and students' spiritual lives with the long-range goals of creating a campus atmosphere that supports and encourages spirituality as a key part of identity and providing greater access to spirituality as a resource for wellness. Interfaith Center staff are under the impression that mainstream campus culture discourages spirituality, thus inhibiting what is an important aspect of identity for some and cutting off its wellness benefits. The project will likely consist of interviews, focus groups, information gathering and reports, organizing and analyzing information on the subject of students' spirituality and the campus climate for spiritual life.

Project Objectives:

  1. Find out how students define spirituality
  2. Find out what currently supports and inhibits students' spirituality
  3. Identify new opportunities for supporting students' spirituality 

Revitalizing Learning 4 Life: Empowered Minds and Connected Hearts

Project Advisor: Diane Anderson, Associate Professor, Educational Studies, Elaine Allard, Associate Professor - Educational Studies, Director - Teaching and Learning Commons, & Caroline Cheung, Program Coordinator - Teaching and Learning Commons

Fellow: recruiting

The Learning 4 Life Program facilitates opportunities for everyone to become a teacher and learner. Through this project, the IEFI fellow will identify ways to increase engagement with Learning 4 Life across different campus constituents and reduce barriers to participation with the goal of creating more opportunities for the Swarthmore community to participate, connect, and build relationships across roles, backgrounds and generations. Additionally, the IEFI Fellow will identify additional collaborators and teaching/learning initiatives.

Project Objectives:

  1. Understand and identify barriers, opportunities, and collaborators for program engagement by direct outreach to faculty, staff, and students. Review similar programs/opportunities that are open to all staff (i.e. sewing workshops, etc.)
    1. Q: Are the programs that are effectively reaching faculty and staff?
  2. Utilize research to expand and promote Learning 4 Life to increase campus awareness and pilot new  learning initiatives to increase engagement from Faculty, Staff, and Students.
  3. Develop and enhance campus infrastructure to ensure the continuity and sustainability of the program for future years, including but not limited to outlining the ways campus employees can participate in Learning 4 Life (i.e. working with HR for clarity in communication, sharing the support for this program for permitted participation).

Student Leadership: Foundations for Inclusive Excellence

Project Advisor: Rebecca Wintraub-Barth, Director of Student Activities, Office of Student Engagement

Fellow: recruiting

The IEFI Fellow for the Student Leadership: Foundations for Inclusive Excellence will research best practices and benchmark across peer institutions to gain a better understanding of the standard resources for student leadership development. Utilizing the information gathered they will develop evergreen materials to support student leadership development with an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. These foundational materials will possess qualities that are timeless, enduring, consistently relevant and appealing for the organization and its members.

Project Objectives:

  1. Research current best practices for student leadership development across at least four (4) similar-sized private liberal arts colleges and identify at least four (6) key student organizations (i.e. varied in size, type, and audience) to conduct focus groups.

  2. Develop tools, resources, training materials, learning outcomes and a strategy to support student leadership development across all student organizations that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion.

  3. Pilot suggested materials, collect feedback, and assess learning outcomes from student organizations (at least one from focus group, and one new one).

The Genealogy Project: Sharing Personal Histories and Building Community Connections

Project Advisor: Jeannine Osayande, Senior Lecturer, Dance Department

Fellow: recruiting

The Fellow for The Genealogy Project: Sharing Personal Histories and Building Community Connections will foster meaningful connections within the Swarthmore community by inviting members to share their personal stories. Through this project, the fellow will assist participants to explore genealogy, deepening their understanding of family histories, and bringing that knowledge to campus. By creating opportunities for students to research and share their own heritage, the project strengthens community bonds and celebrates the diverse narratives that shape Swarthmore.

Project Objectives:

  1. The fellow will research genealogy practices to understand and identify skills needed to explore their own family history.
  2. Create interview protocol and key deliverables for conducting interviews/focus groups with community members to assist with the development and buy-in for the program they will offer using the skills they have learned.
  3. Develop a program with a minimum of 6-12 representative community members (i.e. Staff, Students, Faculty and external community members to explore the practice of genealogy and help the Swarthmore community connect through sharing their family history and telling their personal stories.
  4. Pilot opportunities for participants to communicate their findings and share their histories with the broader community.

Understanding Black Student Experiences

Project Advisor: Kristen Smith, Registrar, Registrar's Office

Fellow: recruiting

The IEFI Fellow will lead a research-based initiative aimed at deepening our understanding of the lived experiences that foster a sense of belonging and support the success of Black students at Swarthmore. Through qualitative exploration and campus engagement, the Fellow will identify both the high-impact practices that help students thrive (i.e. student organizations, study abroad, and mentorship) and the barriers or disengaging experiences that may limit participation or connection. This work will inform actionable strategies and interventions to cultivate a campus culture rooted in inclusion, equity, and belonging for all.

Project Objectives:

  1. Lead a qualitative study using diverse focus groups (i.e. class years, socioeconomic backgrounds, nationalities, etc.) and one-on-one interviews to understand the range of Black student experiences across their time at Swarthmore
  2. Identify the experiences/programs/organizations on campus, where Black students participate (or not), and increase understanding of what drives participation (or not)
  3. Propose interventions, tools, and strategies to improve Black student experiences and ensure they can maximize their time at Swarthmore.

In Community ~ Connecting Across Differences, Promoting Belonging

Project Advisor: Brooke Vick, Vice President Diversity, Equity and Inclusion & Alison Berk, Director of Equity and Inclusion & Equal Opportunity Officer

Fellow: Claress Bahamundi '27 & Juan Torrez '29

In its second year, the In Community ~ Connecting Across Difference, Promoting Belonging Team will continue to develop, pilot, and assess the curriculum for a Diversity Equity and Inclusion certificate course designed to connect the Swarthmore community across differences and promote a culture of belonging.

Project Objectives

  1. Conduct research, including benchmarking, on educational opportunities and approaches relevant to DEI content at Swat and similar programs that occur outside the classroom at peer institutions.
  2. Work with Project Advisors to identify key DEI concepts that would be beneficial to increase community cultural literacy and awareness and collaborate with IEFI project team/committee to execute training for students. (i.e. info sourced from the climate survey)
  3. Effectively develop, advertise, plan, execute, and assess learning outcomes for 1 sample workshops/training session that will be incorporated into an impactful certificate program.
  4. Draft suggestions/curriculum for a complete program at the end of year (i.e. certificate, passport, etc.)

Inclusion at Work: Diversity in Careers

Project Advisor: Jennifer Barrington, Associate Director Career Development, Career Services &  Erin Massey, Senior Associate Director of Career Services

Fellows: Tobias Cen '28 & Olivia Eaton '28

The IEFI Fellow for the Building Your Identity through Career Development project will research student interests and assess knowledge gaps in career exploration, create and facilitate Alumni and Student career panels, develops online resources for the Career Services (CS) Affinity web pages, collects Alumni stories to be shared on the CS web page and ultimately enhance Career Services outreach offering Career Development information and resources for all students. The pilot/prototype student population will be identified based on the IEFI Fellow interest and goals in collaboration with IEFI Project Advisors. 

Project Objectives

  1. Offer four (4) career development programs during the year focused on self-awareness, professional skill development, and career exploration and making connections. This can include career panels and workshops based on the IEFI Fellow interests and goals of Career Services.
  2. Add three (3) to four (4) professional development resources for Career Services Affinity web pages. This could include websites on specific topics or “how to” guides on professional skills.
  3. Collect six (6) Alumni career development stories through interviews, blogs, reels, and articles to be posted on Career Services website. Alumni can be researched on SwatLink then plan how they’d like to share their stories.
  4. Be an active participant in the Becoming You program (held over six (6) meetings on Thursdays at lunchtime the first six (6) weeks of each semester) and offer feedback on structure and content to the Program Coordinator.

Mining for Solutions ~ BCC Community in Conversations

Project Advisor: Karima Bouchenafa, Assistant Dean And Director of the Black Cultural Center

Fellow: Joie Romelus '27

This project aims to bridge divides within Swarthmore's Black community by fostering unity among its diverse affinity groups. Inspired by recent challenges and campus protests, it seeks to create a cohesive and empowered community through open communication, structured leadership, and collaborative planning. The project envisions transforming the Black Cultural Center into a hub of unity, empowerment, and collaboration at Swarthmore.

Project Objectives:

  1. Bridge communication gaps and promote understanding by providing a platform for students to discuss and share feedback on campus policies.
  2. Form a President's Council for regular roundtable meetings, implementing a leadership pledge on inclusivity, creating planning committees for joint events, organizing skill-building retreats, and establishing a peer mentorship program
  3. The project fellow will research best practices from other universities, facilitate community discussions, and empower students to take an active role in policy development.

Power the Narrative Through Art Project: (P9)

Project Advisor: Chandra Moss-Thorne, Senior Lecturer - Dance Department

Fellows: Anne Hauze '27 & Emma Shi '28

This project’s mission is to examine how art can be used as a form of social justice and to improve representation of artists from marginalized groups. This project will build off the work done over the previous four years. The 24-25 cohort aims to progress efforts in bringing an indigenous artist to campus to creatively honor, through art, the history of the land on which the College sits and the Indigenous people who stewarded it throughout the generations.

Project Objectives:

  1. 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.
  2. Identify and implement other creative ways to engage the Swarthmore community to uplift underrepresented artisans.
  3. Develop informational resources for the Swarthmore community that highlight marginalized influential artists in dance, music, film, art, etc. The information will also focus on how their work has made and/or continues to make an impact on society.
  4. Choose an underrepresented artist or art-form to focus on monthly and host bi-weekly virtual or in-person sessions to discuss the artwork, i.e. what the artist was trying to convey, how it was perceived, how it relates to current geo-politcal issues, etc.
  5. Fellow(s) can also explore monuments/sculptures or architecture that hold significant historical meaning and how people engage or disengage from the symbols.

We’ve Always Been Here: History of LGBTQ+ Life at Swarthmore College 

Project Advisors: Tiffany Thompson, Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence & Paige Jennings, Director of Gender and Sexuality Center

In its 5th year, this project will continue to build on previous progress and finalize the outcomes.. The project will centrally document the history of the LGBTQ+ community at Swarthmore College and explore future work to be accomplished. 

Project Objectives

  1. Review the findings of the last four years and begin to map out a comprehensive and easily accessible multimedia archive that documents the lives and stories of Swarthmore College’s LGBTQ+ communities that will build on what already exists at McCabe Library. This will include filling the missing archival material gaps from 1997 up to present day.
  2. Work to highlight BIPOC trans, and non-binary stories that are more than often erased even within the community.
  3. Premiere the project during the Gender and Sexuality Center’s (former Women’s Resource Center) 50th Anniversary celebration in Spring 2025.