Wherever you go, leave that place better than you found it
I was very close to my grandparents while I was growing up. They made an incredible impact on who I am and what I value. Hildeliza, my maternal grandmother, frequently told me, “Wherever you go, leave that place better than how you found it.”
Alicia Prieto Langarica
Youngstown State University (YSU) offered me a tenure-track position once I earned my PhD in 2012. I found it to be the perfect job in the perfect department. YSU had a very active group of mathematics majors and a long history of undergraduate research and student-centered activities. After all, it was the department of legends such as Douglas Faires, Jacek Fabrykowski, Tom Wakefield and Angela Spalsbury; it was a department truly focused on students, on their growth and well-being.
During my first semester, Angie Spalsbury proposed that I take the three female students interested in attending the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics to the conference. I jumped at the opportunity to do so, and had a FANTASTIC time with Ashley, Megan and Sarah (the daughter of my then chair!). Yet I was told that three students interested in a conference represented a higher level of interest than the department had had in some years, and I was disappointed we did not have more students wanting to attend. I returned convinced that I had to do something to increase the number of women math majors at YSU.
I would like to say that I was tactical, intentional, and strategic about increasing the number of women math majors and that I spent days thinking about a good way to solve the problem. However, if you know me, you might be skeptical. I took an ad hoc approach. I teach calculus I or II almost all semesters. In these courses, I very intentionally engaged all my female students and made sure I had one-on-one time with them. I was very supportive of all my students, but I particularly targeted my female students (and my occasional non-white student): I constantly told them they should really consider majoring in mathematics. If I saw even a small amount of interest, I met with them outside class and talked about their future, their goals, and their dreams, and I talked with them about how a mathematics degree (or a second major or minor) would enhance their plans. Then—and this is key—I invited them to do research in math. This is, by the way, an approach I learned from the great Bill Velez.
These students recruited their friends and together we formed small undergraduate research groups. During one particularly fun semester, I had almost thirty students in eight different projects ranging from working with a Biologist to modeling muscle cell differentiation to exploring using recommender systems to help students choose classes to satisfy general education requirements. Most of these students were freshmen/sophomores and almost all of them were women. They were not all mathematics majors, but they were all involved in the department activities, they were all doing research in math, and they all created a nice, very supportive community of women doing math. I’m grateful to my then chair, Dr. Spalsbury, who created a class for my research students to enroll in, thus giving them and me course credit for our research work.
Meanwhile, the department itself began to change. In the last nine years YSU has hired faculty into four new tenure-track positions and four new full-time non-tenure-track positions. Three of each were filled by women mathematicians, adding six women to our faculty group. The change in student body and faculty composition started having an influence in the department at large. We started an Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) chapter which then hosted many programs and activities. One of these programs, the Bigs and Littles program, won the inaugural AWM award for outreach. The women in mathematics at YSU now comprise a self-sustaining group who themselves invite other women into mathematics and STEM and who have built a strong supportive community.
While I am incredibly proud of how much the department has changed, I know there is still a lot of work to do. YSU is located in Youngstown, OH. The local high school student body is 96% non-white. However, it is still rare to find non-white students taking calculus classes. We, as faculty and administrators at YSU, have the responsibility of not waiting for these students to come to us. Rather, we need to reach out to the local community and, led by them, find ways to help, with funding, time, and effort. I am excited to see colleagues like Dr. Alexis Byers, one of our newer tenure-track faculty, leading MAA-funded outreach programs to the local high schools. I’m equally enthusiastic to see more of my colleagues participating in professional development programs aimed at preparing them to better serve minoritized students. My chair, Dr. Tom Wakefield, is reaching out to all the local high schools and offering a variety of professional development opportunities for math teachers. Just as when I started, I am still so happy and grateful to be at YSU.
You may be wondering what can be done at your institution. I know that the struggle to increase the number of women and students from minoritized populations in mathematics can feel overwhelming. Worse, for many who are not directly impacted by racist and other exclusionary practices, this struggle might feel like a job for others. After all, we were trained to do mathematics, not inclusion work. However, if we choose to accept the status quo and to just focus on mathematics, we are forcibly leaving out talented potential mathematicians. How can mathematics advance if we do not let all those with the talent and desire to contribute do so? If you do not know where to start, I recommend checking out the podcast Mathematically Uncensored by the amazing Drs. Aris Winger and Pamela Harris. Another fantastic start is to follow (and LISTEN before you reply) to amazing people on Twitter like Dr. Marissa Kawehi and Dr. Piper H (and many others) who constantly give examples of how oppressive our community can be and make great suggestions for how we can work together to change it. It is a long, hard road ahead, but one that can be filled with joy and constant learning. Little by little we will be able to say we came and left this place better than how we found it.