STEM and DEI:

Yielding Important Benefits

In January 2023, the College of Arts and Science (CoAS) appointed Sibrina Collins, PhD as executive direction of STEM Education, whose goal is connecting STEM to the community in meaningful ways. Collins said that the focus of STEM Education is “research, teaching, scholarship, and outreach to get more students, particularly women and students of color, interested in pursuing careers in STEM.

Sibrina Collins

“We do that through a variety of activities like using the film Black Panther to engage students in STEM or supporting a local Detroit Public School District school teacher who was working with a team of students to build an electric car,” Collins explained. 

In addition to her role with STEM Education in CoAS, Collins is Associate Professor of Practice in Chemistry at LTU. Her research is at the intersection of STEM and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She uses storytelling, including scientific biographies, as a pedagogical tool to advance equity in STEM. “Some students might be on the fence about a career in STEM, not feeling like they belong. But if you show them someone who’s contributed to the field and who looks like them reflected in the curriculum, they might be drawn to it,” Collins said.

Collins collaborated with a couple LTU media communication students to produce short films to illustrate her points: Women Untold , a 30-minute film produced by Marie Anne Torres Lopez, and 8-minute Inclusive Stories with Science: Celebrating Bettye Washington-Greene , an industrial research chemist and the first African American female PhD chemist to work in a professional position at the Dow Chemical Company. This was produced by Logan Danaher ‘23. 

Henry Ford College student Yohanly Fernandez during LTU Research Day describing her poster titled "Applications of Radioactive Isotopes" to Jessica Walker, an LTU Admissions Counselor

Collaborations are key to the success of the STEM Education initiative. CoAS brought 11 high school and 12 community college students for LTU’s 2023 Research Day, a highlight of the academic year. Four high school and two community college students presented posters.

The new “Bridges” program and dual enrollment are means to advance STEM Education among young people as well as recruit and retain students at LTU. “Bridges” gives high school students the opportunity to do important research with a CoAS faculty member. Dual enrollment allows high school students to take a college course and earn both high school and college credit at the same time it can give students a jumpstart on learning about and preparing for careers. 

“What’s important about a research experience,” Collins said, “is that you can tell students that it’s how you can make a difference in your community. It also teaches presentation and leadership skills, teamwork, how to meet deadlines, and how to present yourself, all important life lessons.” She is currently working with her colleagues in other CoAS departments to obtain a grant that would be used to engage community college students in substantive research with CoAS faculty. 

What’s important about STEM Education at LTU? Collins said, “Aside from recruiting students to a great university, we’re doing our part to help teachers teach better, help students learn better, and widen the circle so that everyone can feel that there’s a place for them in STEM.”

by Renée Ahee