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OAA Diversity Initiatives & Support Area |
Be a Part of the Diversity DiscussionA Summer Visit from Girls Group Much to the surprise of director Sue Schooner, the Ann Arbor-based "Girls Group" was given a statewide "Hometown Health Heroes" award during Michigan Public Health Week in spring 2012. "So then I decided I'd better figure out what public health was," Schooner declared, only half in jest. Because the Girls Group was founded to mentor and empower teenage girls for better health and education outcomes, a day at the University of Michigan School of Public Health was a natural destination for one of the after-school group's outings. Schooner and her Girls Group assistants worked with SPH's Director of Academic Diversity Initiatives Chanel DeGuzman to plan a multipurpose visit for 20 group members in August 2012 that would:
A half-dozen faculty, staff, and recent graduates from U-M SPH were enlisted to describe their career paths and answer questions from the girls about the challenges they had encountered and overcome. Research Investigator Belinda Nelson, for example (at left in photo above), explained that she gone from being the first person in her family to graduate from high school to earning four university degrees and doing important work with asthma, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. Key to her academic success was always believing that she could move forward with each goal, rather than giving up or succumbing to doubts, she explained.
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From U-M President Mary Sue Coleman:“We know that diversity makes us a better university – better for learning, for teaching, and for conducting research. "Welcome to the University of Michigan, one of our country’s great public universities. One of the many reasons I am thrilled to be part of this university community is because of its long-standing commitment to diversity. I firmly believe that we can learn some of life’s most important lessons from each other. The more varied the perspectives represented, the richer our education. Our differences—whether they be the academic questions that engage us, age, economic background, gender, or race, to name just a few—bring a buoyancy to our campus community and help create the intellectual vitality that makes Michigan internationally renowned. "Several years ago, Michigan’s faculty, through the University Senate, reaffirmed its commitment “to recruiting and maintaining a culturally and racially diverse student body and faculty that are representative of contemporary society, and to assuring that these diverse influences are respected and incorporated into the structure of the University.”
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Other activities during the visit included a scavenger hunt through the school, a web tour of school social media channels, and a lively in in-depth discussion of the nine-portion U.S.D.A. fruit and vegetable recommendations. "The girls received such a diverse spectrum of experiences and views of public health," reflected SPH's DeGuzman after the visit, noting that follow-up activities are being planned to further explore their interests in nutrition, higher education, and public health as a career.
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