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Barriers To Building Communities That Foster Sense Of Belonging

Friday, November 4, 2022

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Location: Arlington & Fairfax

Co-Presenter(s)

D Jennings (they/them/theirs)

Professor
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia, United States
Stacey Wahl (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor, Senior Instructional Designer
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia, United States
MC

Michal Coffey

Director
Virginia Commonwealth University

Program Abstract: Meaningful student-faculty interactions have been shown to increase student sense of belonging and enable students to thrive in the college environment, particularly for students from minority communities. In addition to student-faculty relationships, there are often barriers to faculty interactions across disciplines, creating a lack of community between STEM faculty that are engaging with the same group of students. This session will focus on identifying and examining barriers to authentic student-student, student-faculty, and faculty-faculty interactions. Participants will work in teams to brainstorm strategies to identify and break down barriers at their home institutions, build broad and inclusive communities, and foster a sense of belonging in both students and faculty.