ODEI Spotlight:

'STEM Goes Red' with Penn

On Tuesday, February 7, 2023, Penn Engineering’s Community Outreach Team, under the leadership of Chanda Jefferson, Director of Community Engagement and Outreach, joined the American Heart Association’s STEM Goes Red initiative at Lincoln Financial Field. Hosted by the Philadelphia Eagles, Penn Engineering served as the STEM breakout session sponsor. Read More

Projects for Progress, Two Years In

In 2021, three Projects for Progress (P4P) teams set out to improve the quality of life in West Philadelphia: one by addressing the primary care needs of homeless and underserved people, one by revamping the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center, and one by addressing the COVID-induced learning gap in elementary school students and educators. An Oct. 17 event celebrated the work of these teams and their 2022 counterparts. Six P4P groups have received awards since the initiative’s inception. Read More

LGBT Center by the Numbers

This year, Penn’s LGBT Center celebrates its 40th anniversary. The Center is the second oldest of its kind in the country, with its founding director, the late Robert Schoenberg, originally working out of the Student Activities office in Houston Hall. The Center’s current home in the historic Robert Schoenberg Carriage House tucked away off Spruce Street was made possible through a gift from David Goodhand and Vincent Griski, both class of 1985.  Read More

Bolstering Environmental Education in Cobbs Creek

For the last year, with support from a Projects for Progress (P4P) award, a team from Penn has collaborated with Center staff and the Cobbs Creek community to enhance resources to support similar learning opportunities at the CCCEC. Their goal is to promote equitable access to STEM education for residents of the Cobbs Creek neighborhood. “Now more than ever, our society understands the value of green spaces and of STEM education, and the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center provides both for West Philadelphia families and students,” says President Liz Magill.  Read More

Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Dedicates New Suite to Foundational Figures

On December 3rd, 2021, ODEI cut the ribbon on its new suite in the Towne Building, featuring a conference room and study space dedicated to two of its foundational figures: Ms. Cora Ingrum, ODEI’s former Director, and Ms. Donna Hampton, the office’s longtime administrative assistant. Read More

Putting Community First, in a New Social Justice Initiative

The Community Collaboratory for Co-Creation, led by Penn Nursing and Penn Engineering, will focus on research, education, and community engagement and outreach. The first three years of the new initiative, which officially began in October, will focus on research, education, and community engagement and outreach. Read More

Project Maji: 2021 Penn Engagement Prize Winner Will Provide Innovative Water Solution to Aid Refugees in Uganda

Team Maji consists of Leah Voytovitch, a daughter of former Soviet Union refugees, and Martin Leet, a refugee who lived in a camp in Kenya before arriving at Penn. Both students have graduated from Penn and are now in the program implementation phase of the project at the Olua I refugee camp in Uganda. Residents of this refugee camp, like many others, lack access to clean drinking water and Project Maji aims to provide this necessity. Read  More

Breaking Ground at Penn’s Cutting-edge Data Science Hub

On Friday, October 8, invited guests and members of the Penn community celebrated the groundbreaking of Penn Engineering’s new data science building and the unveiling of its official name, Amy Gutmann Hall. The event was presided over by President Gutmann, naming donor Harlan Stone, Nemirovsky Family Dean Vijay Kumar, and Penn Engineering Board Chair Rob Stavis. The 116,000-square-foot, six-floor building, located on the northeast corner of 34th and Chestnut Streets near Lauder College House, will centralize resources for researchers and scholars across Penn’s 12 schools and numerous academic centers while making the tools of data analysis more accessible to the entire Penn community. Read More

ODEI and RAS Welcome New URM Graduate Students to Penn Engineering

Penn Engineering’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Research and Academic Services (RAS) Graduate Office welcomed new Under-Represented Minority (URM) graduate students with special events to kick off the Fall 2021 semester. View Story

News

Gary S. May Presents Third Joseph Bordogna Forum: ‘The Diversity Imperative’

03.01.2023 | Read More

‘STEM Goes Red’ with Penn

02.10.2023 | Read More

Demystifying Grad School to Enhance Diversity in STEM

10.24.2022 | Read More

Events of Interest

ODEI Events + Programming Spotlight:

Discussion Support Groups with Dr. Heather Hersh - March 2023

A Discussion Support Group is a safe, confidential space where you can connect with other students and talk openly and genuinely about how you are doing. It is also a wonderful place where you can give and receive support- and realize you are not alone in your experiences. Each group is one hour long. Every group is different and meets the attendees where they are that day. Even if you are not sure what you want to talk about, still consider coming to connect with your peers and join in our discussion. Light refreshments will be served!

March 16th (Master's Students) & March 23rd (PhD Students) | 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT | Towne 215

Penn Abroad x SWE Event

Interested in studying abroad but unsure about how that intersects with engineering? On 3/23, come join the Society of Women Engineers & Penn Abroad to learn about exciting engineering study-abroad opportunities over boba! At the end, bring questions for a student panel of female engineers who participated in various programs overseas. Registration is REQUIRED, so please RSVP soon. Please contact Lindsay Park (lpark65@seas.upenn.edu) with any questions.

March 23rd | 5:15pm - 6:15pm EDT | Zoom

Society of Women Engineers Baking Night

Join the Penn Society of Women Engineers (SWE) for a fun baking night where you can enjoy some sweet treats. Open to all!

March 28th | 7:00pm - 8:30pm EDT | Gutmann College House Kitchen

Student i care Training

The i care training is an interactive gatekeeper training for students, faculty, and staff that builds a caring community with the skills and resources to intervene with student stress, distress, and crisis. The training has informational and experiential components, with approximately half of the training dedicated to role-play practice. Participants are required to complete a 30-minute online module prior to the training.

April 1st | 1:00pm - 4:00pm EDT | Houston Hall, Ben Franklin Room

USABE Student Survey

The Underrepresented Student Advisory Board in Engineering (USABE) asks that students take some time to reflect on their experiences from last semester and share them through an anonymous survey. The USABE board will use the collective feedback from this survey to advocate for the interests of underrepresented students to Penn Engineering faculty and administrators. The form should take 5-10 minutes to complete.

PESTLE Student Survey

Penn Engineering Student Learning and Engagement (PESTLE) is looking for feedback so they may catch the pulse of engineering students' needs when it comes to community service/engagement projects moving forward. 

ODEI Faculty Office Hours

Do you have any general academic questions? Would you like to talk to a professor outside of class? Do you want to discuss life or any topic of your choice in a safe and welcoming environment? If so, we invite you to attend ODEI Faculty Office Hours with Penn Engineering's own Dr. Eric Fouh! These sessions are not about getting help on specific assignments, but rather an opportunity to connect with a faculty member as well as other underrepresented students.

We hope to see you there!

Every Tuesday | 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST | Towne 211 & 215

A Statement on Behalf of Wellness at Penn and Penn's Center for Public Health Initiatives Regarding Roe v. Wade

Providing inclusive public health services for all in our community means providing access to safe and legal reproductive care, including abortions. The World Health Organization recognizes abortion care as an essential healthcare service. Continuing to reinforce comprehensive abortion care is life-saving, affirming, and critical to the nation's public health. In light of this [Supreme Court] decision, the Penn public health community will continue to educate and promote access to comprehensive and safe reproductive care.

Penn Engineering Reflection Room

Penn Engineering students are encouraged to take advantage of the recently established Reflection Room for prayer and meditation located in Hayden Hall.

Hayden Hall | Room 120C | The door to the Reflection Room is usually unlocked

Available 7am-5pm, Monday through Friday!

Watch the 2022 Joseph Bordogna Forum Lecture by Dr. Gilda Barabino

The second annual Joseph Bordogna Forum took place on February 15, 2022, and featured a talk from Dr. Gilda Barabino, President of the Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA entitled “Engineering for Everyone: Centering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

Watch the Inaugural Joseph Bordogna Forum Lecture by Dr. John Brooks Slaughter

The inaugural Joseph Bordogna Forum took place on February 24, 2021, and featured a talk from John Brooks Slaughter, Deans’ Professor of Education and Engineering at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering and Rossier School of Education, entitled a “Call to Action for Racial Justice and Equity in Engineering.”

Tour the New Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion!

Join Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Dr. CJ Taylor as he shows off our new office space on the second floor of the historic Towne Building. Featuring a look inside the Donna Hampton Study Space and Cora Ingrum Conference Room, we are excited to share this space with you!

ODEI Strategic Plan

Penn Engineering is passionately committed to attracting, nurturing, and graduating engineers whose diversity reflects our society in all respects, including race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, creed, and socioeconomic background. Moreover, we seek to ensure all of our community members share an understanding of the importance of fighting bias and maximizing inclusion for the sake of the engineering profession and for the benefit of society at large. Through this, we aim for our graduates to pursue and develop ideas and innovations that will benefit all of humanity.

Penn Engineering's Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

The Penn Compact 2022 affirms Inclusion as a means toward the essential ends of higher education: equalizing opportunity, educating leaders for all sectors of society, and enriching the experience of all members of the University community. Penn Engineering remains strongly committed to initiatives that support the University’s efforts to achieve an educational and employment environment that is diverse in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, interests, abilities and perspectives. We strive to attract a diverse community of students and faculty, to provide an accessible, rigorous engineering education, and to improve our local and global communities through engineering.


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