Scholars, Leaders and Change Agents
"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about."
- Margaret J. Wheatley
The Analytic Hub is committed to strengthening our community of practice by “growing our own” leadership. As part of that effort, the Hub sponsored several of this year's CareFul Scholars to attend the STEM Women of Color Conclave held in early June. At our last bi-weekly call, our Scholars offered their reflections. Words like “life-changing” “transformational” “true wisdom,” “healing” were used to describe the experience. Some of their remarks are paraphrased below. The remarkable thing was that none of our participants attended the proceedings in person. They were describing the effect of just listening to other women of color speak. They heard their own defeats and victories, heartaches and insights, hopes, dreams and aspirations coming out of the mouth of someone else.
Reflections from the Conclave:
Collective Stories
"I learned in the leadership session that setting boundaries is extremely important. The inquiry of what it means to be a 'Super Woman' was very valuable. The shared stories emphasized how important it is to tell our collective stories, including the way that Covid 19 has changed the way we interact with our students."
Informative & Engaging
"This was informative and engaging. I will definitely attend this again."
Resonated
"The poem on the last day of the session resonated with my life"
Pure Wisdom
"Wisdom. Pure Wisdom. I can only hope to have this kind of wisdom to offer to others one day."
Transformational
"The Conclave was transformational. I truly mean it. It was life-changing. The past couple of years have been so hard. The stories from these women were so healing for me. The thing is, I didn't even realize how much I needed the healing."
Reflecting on the Reflections
When the Analytic Hub was created, the goal centered around helping HBCU students and increasing the number of them that successfully completed college with STEM degrees. The goal is now much bigger than that. We have learned that the best way to support HBCU students is by supporting the faculty that serve them. Furthermore, we have realized that the faculty members that serve students most at minority serving institutions are female. We finally acknowledged that for African American female scholars in STEM, the cost of providing intellectual, emotional and social support to our students comes with a price. That price is extracted from our own health and well being and also from our scholarship. Given this reality, we seek change. We support increasing our scholarship in order to cultivate enlightened leadership. We need enlightened leaders to cause change." Since, as Audre Lorde reminds us, "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house", the CareFull Scholars is founded on principles of GENERATIVE dissemination. We start from a simple premise that our self-care must come first because the Academy harms us. Thus, in acknowledging our own need for healing, we seek the salve from each other. There is a balm in Gilead and it is us. You don't have to be an African American woman or even to identify as female to contribute to this research effort. However, as you bring your unfinished grant proposal or research paper to the In Person Writing Retreat next month, you will, by your presence, be participating in the scholarship of CareFull Scholars. Peters, A. L., & Miles Nash, A. (2021). I’m Every Woman: Advancing the Intersectional Leadership of Black Women School Leaders as Anti-Racist Praxis. Journal of School Leadership, 31(1–2), 7–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052684621992759