Advancing InclusiveVT Winter Gathering

2025 Schedule 

2:30-3:3PM 

Building a Culture of Compassion in STEM Education (hybrid)
Qin  Zhu, Associate Professor in Engineering Education

This session introduces a most recent project that aims to cultivate a culture of compassion in STEM education. Through this project, our goal is to establish a dedicated community of faculty committed to systematically creating a compassionate learning environment and integrating compassion into undergraduate STEM curricula through engaged pedagogical approaches.

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Using Perspectives: Constructive Dialogue in the Classroom (in person) 
Susan Stinson, Instructor in the School of Communications

Have students who are particularly shy or unwilling to share when it comes to difficult topics? You are not alone! This session examines and illustrates both informal and formal ways to get students engaged in constructive conversations and to have them apply CDI's Six Shared Values.

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What Students Tell Us About Community and Belonging (hybrid)The Community and Belonging Innovation group report on the outcomes of their research with first year students about how they define and experience community and belonging and the implications of their experiences for practice.

2:30-4:30 PM 

Constructive Dialogue for the Workplace - Workshop (in person)
Chelsea Haines, Chief of Staff for the Division of Student Affairs, Jes Davis, Associate Director for VT Engage, and  Jazmin Jurkiewicz, Mental Health Initiatives Coordinator in Hokie Wellness

This session is for anyone who wants to build their capacity for meaningful dialogue--at home, in the workplace, or in the classroom. 

Constructive dialogue is a form of conversation in which people who have different values, beliefs, and perspectives seek to build new ways to understand and interact with each other, even as they sustain commitments to their own principles and perspectives. The format is ideal for discussing important, complicated issues that can divide people.  Participants will complete modules one and two of the Constructive Dialogue Institute Perspectives program in advance (estimated time commitment: One hour), and then engage in  peer-to-peer discussion during the session

4- 5 PM

Disabled Expertise and Epistemic Justice (hybrid)
Ashley Shew, Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies

This presentation explains the problems in the ways disabled people are often regarded in the context of research. It features discussion of the work of the DisCoTec Center on disabled research consulting as a means of addressing epistemic injustice and speaks to wider ongoing and historical and systemic problems presented to disabled people in being heard, understood, planned with, and honored in conversations relevant to all of our lives.

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Diversifying Science Programs (in person only)
Jess Hoopengardner and student leaders from the College of Science

Learn about the College of Science's Diversity Science programs, including their peer mentoring program and first-gen efforts. After learning from student leaders in the programs, you will be given time to brainstorm how you can take components of our programs to your spaces on campus!