I came from China ten years ago as an international PhD student, and I have kept pursuing my professional career in the USA. Therefore, I personally understand the challenges from huge differences of histories, cultures and social diversities in life and learning environment. My experience leads me to recognize and value diversity and stimulates me to make contributions to diversity and inclusion.

As a teaching assistant, I taught introductory biology courses to both non-science major and science major undergrad students from a variety of backgrounds. To the students who had different relevant background knowledge due to their cultures, I helped them find out their knowledge gaps and provided more resources to fill in the gaps. To cultivate their appreciation of different cultures and respect for diverse values, I also encouraged the students to discuss their opinions, to share their own experiences and cultures in class, and to explain the differences and commonality in discussions. As a postdoctoral research associate in a department with a high percentage of international students at University at Buffalo, I had more chances to communicate and mentor international graduate students. I shared my own experience to encourage them to pursue their career goals. Now as a faculty at Northwestern University, other than being approachable and accessible to students, I make efforts to identify students’ diversity and to provide resources and support in and out of class for students with different backgrounds, learning styles and expectations.

In the future, as an instructor and mentor, I would like to promote an inclusionary environment in the class, the research group and the department, through my inclusive teaching, diverse research program and active service in the department.

Inclusive teaching. I will develop a curriculum of teaching to reduce the education barriers for the students from minorities and underrepresented groups. In my class, I will actively identify the diversity in prior knowledge, learning experience and expectation, and cultural background that may affect students’ learning process by asking students to take a survey at the beginning of the semester. I will use multiple types of teaching materials or strategies to accommodate the learning diversity among students. I will check their learning assessment results through the whole semester to see if any student may have a challenge in the class and to offer my advice and help to them. I will actively arrange discussion and group work to encourage communication and collaboration among students who have different experiences and backgrounds.

Diverse student engagement. My research program will provide equal opportunity and diverse engagements in research projects for undergraduate students, including field work, experiments, data processing, and model development. I will offer individual-specific guide and training based on students’ personal interests and experiences in research. In the field observation and experiments, students will accumulate their own personal field experiences, get inspired by the natural world, and learn how to turn the natural phenomenon in the field to quantitative values in the data sheets using different types of techniques. In my research projects, I will encourage students to develop their own independent research using hypothesis-driven scientific methods combining their interests and backgrounds. I will train students to achieve their learning goals or career plan based on their strength and skill gaps.