What’s Your Story? Faculty-Student Dinners
“What’s Your Story?” faculty-student dinners are hosted in collaboration with the campus residence hall Living Learning Communities. The goals of these dinners are to:
· Engage in conversation with students about the many challenges along a professional trajectory and strategies for dealing with challenges.
· Give faculty the opportunity to learn about the numerous challenges that students have already faced in their lives or are currently facing and allow faculty time to consider how to adapt their pedagogy and mentoring strategies to meet students where they are.
During these events, students and faculty share dinner and personal conversations about persistence, challenges, and identity. We aspire to have these events promote community building, establishing a lasting culture of inclusion between the faculty and students in STEM. After one event a participant noted, “I really liked connecting with my professors and hearing their personal stories. It made them seem a little more approachable” and another stated, “I was able to relate to staff members and remember that we are all humans with lives.” With these dinners, we are learning to engage in genuine conversations, create more inclusive communities and actively work to dismantle barriers.
School of Natural Sciences Living Learning Communities
Science-Themed Living Learning Communities Enjoy Successful Debut
