Page 5 - CEMS Winter 2022 Newsletter

DEI UPDATE
DEI group members (pictured, from left): Kacey Gregerson, Kim Kosto, David Morse, Michelle Quan, Dan McDonald, Marisa Bazzi, Cari Dutcher, Anisha Veeren, Phil Engen, Alon McCormick, and Spencer Bingham. Not pictured: Gabriela Diaz Gorbea, Benjamin Hackel, and Amy Wesolowski. Photo credit: Rebecca Slater, By Rebecca Studios.
Mental Health Advocates
CEMS faculty members Turan Birol, Benjamin Hackel and Qi Zhang recently completed training to become mental health advocates. They join Professors Prodromos Daoutidis and Alon McCormick and staff members Kacey Gregerson and Julie Prince as department mental health advocates.
Professor Kim Kosto, a member
of the CEMS DEI Working Group overseeing inclusive teaching efforts, remarked, “Having faculty and
staff who are trained to recognize, respond to, and refer struggling students to appropriate resources and support is vital to our teaching
efforts. I have often heard students describe the positive impact of a staff or faculty member who has helped support their mental health, and I look forward to better serving them.”
Thanks to these contributors from the Working Group: Marisa Bazzi, Alon McCormick, Spencer Bingham, Ben Hackel, Kim Kosto, Dan McDonald and SOAR: Grace Kresge, Kristine Loh, John Dewey.
DEI and SOAR
Outreach
The CEMS DEI and CEMS SOAR groups collaborated with teachers from the MRSEC Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program to develop short, focused videos to help students succeed in the science classroom.
View the videos on how to use a multimeter and light microscope here: https://z.umn.edu/cems- outreach
CEMS now supports Minds Matter by providing space in Amundson Hall on weekends. Minds Matter connects driven students from low-income families with mentors to prepare for college. Besides providing space, 14 people (graduate students and staff) from CEMS are part of the mentorship program that is helping over 30 high school students in grades 10 to 12 this year.
Learn more about their mission:
https://www.mindsmattermn. org/
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