• TBD: Next Social Activity
  For our last social activity, we visited the Biosphere 2 Science Museum on 2022 March 5th with international & domestic graduate students and postdocs.

• TBD: Next Cultural Celebration Meeting
  Our last cultural celebration event on 2021 May 28th showcased food & recipes from the countries represented by our international scholars in the department.

The International Scholars Task Force is composed of a dedicated group of international and domestic graduate students, postdocs, and faculty who are strong advocates for international scholars. With new initiatives we wish to:

• increase international scholars' sense of belonging in the department and in Tucson.

• increase cultural competence on behalf of both international and domestic scholars in the department.

• We created the International Scholars Allyship Program to help every new international scholar with their transition to the US and integration into our community at Steward Observatory and in Tucson as a whole.

• We host department-wide events that celebrate the diversity in cultural and ethnic backgrounds at Steward Observatory. Our last such meeting was on 2021 January 20th, where we held a contest on music videos originating from our international scholars' home countries. See the zoom recording here.

• We created a checklist for incoming students and postdocs, summarizing the laundry list of necessary paperwork and tasks required to transition to life in the US. We also provide tips that can help new scholars become settled in Tucson.

• In collaboration with the Department Climate Task Force, we are finalizing a survey for the current international and domestic scholars at Steward to identify unique problems faced by international scholars during their career at Steward Observatory.

• We are preparing a questionnaire to be sent out on a regular basis targeting the Allyship Program participants (both the incoming scholars and their allies) to ensure the well-being of new scholars and the success of our program.