Category: News

By Mikayla Bulson, Hassan Hassan & Chandra Turpen  Every year the sessions at our annual Assembly are developed by student leaders (called Assembly Fellows) from all Access Sites (Chi-Sci Scholars at Chicago State Univ., Compass at Univ. of California Berkeley, CU-Prime at Univ. of Colorado Boulder, Equity Constellation at Univ. of Maryland, GPS at Univ. Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IMPRESS at Rochester Institute of Technology, North Star at Univ. of Oregon, Polaris at Ohio State Univ., and Read More

Several members of the Access Network recently published a paper in the 2020 Proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference studying students in the network. Students’ exploring and refining their equity ethic within the Access Networkwritten by Fidel Amezcua, Gina M. Quan, and Chandra TurpenThe Access Network is an organization that supports vibrant interactions among students and faculty who advocate for equity work in the physical sciences. This paper uses McGee and Bentley’s framework of Read More

Several members of Access recently had a paper and poster accepted to the 2019 proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference (PERC). PERC is an annual conference attached to the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Summer Meeting. Our paper gives an overview of the Access Network and shares some evidence that Access activities are supporting some of our goals. We are grateful for the members of Access who were willing to share their experiences Read More

The Access Assembly made it possible for me to visit the ASU Sundial program for several days in order to learn about their summer program. Each year, the Sundial team works hard to put together a set of lessons and projects on an interesting topic (e.g. exoplanets) along with fun social activities for incoming freshmen so that they have a stronger sense of community and a reliable toolset to tackle their first year of college. Read More

Brianne Gutmann and Gloria Lee, student-leaders in Guidance for Physics Students (GPS) at UIUC, recently co-authored a letter to the Editor in Nature about graduate student mental health. They point out that recent discussions of mental health in graduate school have focused on student coping mechanisms, rather than addressing systemic features of academia that negatively impact mental health. You can read the post, Better mentoring stands to boost junior researchers’ mental health, by Roshni Bano, Brianne Gutmann, Read More

During the SACNAS conference, many opportunities arose for summer internships and research. As a first year, the conference was very motivating and eye-opening to the opportunities available. Being exposed to the many opportunities, it helped frame a potential path for my upcoming summers. I was able to network throughout the conference, and I made connections that may be very beneficial for my future. Furthermore, I was able to gain mentorship regarding successful interview skills. During Read More

Attending the SACNAS conference was a wonderful experience professionally and academically. I had the opportunity to present research I did this past summer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. While presenting this research project, I practiced my science communication skills and met professors and researchers who were interested in learning more about my interests and future goals. I even got the “best poster presentation award” in physics/astronomy for the second time! The professors I met ranged Read More