GSAC begins GrASP for DEI at CMU
In July 2020, as issues of social justice captured the attention of the country, eight graduate students in the MSE Department formed a working group within the Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC) focused on issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The mission of the group is to improve representation within the MSE community, increase support for students belonging to underrepresented groups, and normalize and facilitate discussions and dialogue on challenging topics. One of the first major actions by the group was founding a Graduate Application Support Program (GrASP), aimed at reducing the barriers that are often acutely felt by underrepresented scholars. GrASP included a series of webinars open to all prospective applicants, as well as a one-on-one mentorship opportunity for applicants to receive feedback on their application from current students. In its inaugural year, GrASP served about 50 students through the webinars and matched nearly 25 applicants with current students, with 11 of them receiving admission to our program. It is the goal of the group to grow GrASP in the following application cycle with more targeted advertising and increased current student participation.
Feel free to reach out to the GSAC DEI Working Group via email at mse-grad-dei@andrew.cmu.edu
Members: Gaurav Balakrishnan, Adrian Johnson, Katelyn Jones, Michael Kitcher, Venkatesh Krishnamurthy, Katrina Ramirez-Meyers. CMU MSE GRADS for DEI