UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — “Within our country, within our institutions, within Penn State there are stories of hidden figures. … Every field has hidden figures they have lost to history. They have stories that need to be held up and held onto,” said Shirley Malcom, senior adviser and director of SEA Change, an international nonprofit organization housed in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and dedicated to advancing science, technology, and innovation for the benefit of all.
Malcom gave the keynote address at the inaugural Science Equity & Diversity Conference in the Penn State Eberly College of Science. The event brought together students, faculty, staff, alumni, and external partners in the college to explore and strengthen the impact of inclusive excellence in STEM.
Her talk, “Eberly Inclusive: Identifying and Removing Barriers to Success,” centered on the history of scientific institutions and scientific progress, and steps institutions can work to improve access to science education and research, such as through blind reviews of proposals.
“Objectivity is an aspiration. We aren’t there yet, and we have to do things to work much harder to actually achieve this,” Malcom said, giving the example of “whether someone gave somebody else the benefit of the doubt because they are from ‘this’ institution, whereas the same benefit might not be given to someone else … those are the kinds of differences that can make a real difference in terms of the type of education you can offer and whose research is supported.”
Malcom, an Eberly College of Science alumna, also shared some advice on persistence and the importance of finding a community of support.
“When you are just starting off, and you want to know how to maintain that forward movement, you just go through it,” she said. “People will try to pull you back, and you hang out with those who don’t. You hang out with people who push you forward. Take their energy and use their energy to bring yourself back to whatever place you fall into. There is always a plan B; there is also a C, D, E, and F. This is a moment to be brave. This is a moment to be strong and to stand up.
“It can feel like I am throwing out platitudes, but I’m not. You can make it. Put a Post-it note on your screen that says, ‘I can make it.’”
In addition to Malcom’s keynote address, the SeED Conference included community-building workshops, a student panel, and a poster session from groups in the Eberly College of Science that had received funding from the college’s Climate and Diversity Seed Grant Program.