Native American Student Association in partnership with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Multicultural Center, and the Student Diversity Advisory Council

This discussion will address the importance of diversity in the sciences, Indigenous identities, and identity ownership, while providing a foundation as to how to build meaningful belonging, access, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (BA-JEDI) initiatives within STEM disciplines. This discussion will consider Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, components vital for education equity such as, Place, Belonging, and Identity, that collectively create a secure space for diverse scholars in academia and will examine language and behavioral expectations that sometimes conflict with the cultural responsibility of diverse scholars. The goal of this discussion is to empower diverse scholars, encouraging faculty, staff, and administration to be good allies and to provide foundational knowledge as to how to engage in meaningful allyship.