During Fall Quarter 2020, SPS announced our new event series called The Physics Student's Guide that is focused on promoting social wellbeing amongst our physics community. In this series, SPS will host speakers and partner with other organizations here at UC San Diego to cover a range of topics, such as the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in physics, women in physics, LGBTQ+ in physics, and the importance of outreach. Interactive/activity based events will also be featured in this series. At these events, participants will discuss ways in which we unintentionally undermine ourselves as students, talk about implicit and explicit biases, and tackle issues that affect all of us everyday. Our goal is to help educate students on the potential experiences of their peers to promote empathy and further develop a supportive and inclusive physics community. In addition, we also wish to encourage and strengthen intrapersonal and interpersonal communication across individuals. It is our hope that The Physics Student's Guide will help undergraduate students successfully navigate both the academic and social aspects of being in STEM and physics, in particular.

As seen in our statement of purpose, SPS is dedicated to fostering a welcoming and inclusive social and academic community for all UCSD undergraduates interested in physics. Understanding the people within the field and the experiences they face (and those we all face) is as important as understanding the concepts of the field, and is also the best way to advance the field.

We sincerely hope that through these events participants will come to a greater understanding of themselves and their peers, learn to better appreciate the differences and similarities we all share as developing scientists with unique backgrounds, and carry a new awareness for others into their future careers.

~ Aicha Mabene (President) and Gillian McMahon (Vice-President)