I had the honor of participating in the 2025 BIPoC-STEM Student Summit organized by the Louis Stoked Alliance for Minority Participation under the FANTASTIC leadership of Marisol Rodriguez-Mergenthal! I represented the department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering at Drexel University and the Latinx community together with Amanda Carneiro Marques, Ph.D. Together with colleagues from the Academy of Natural Sciences, we presented our research and networked with students.
My favorite part was representing Drexel faculty in the Breaking Barriers: BIPoC Voices in STEM Academia, where I had a conversation with two brilliant graduate students, Max Vance and Alex Ashley . The panel was moderated by Steve Dolph, who also contributed with invaluable advice to students. It was a beautiful and vulnerable conversation where we opened up about challenges we faced and how we overcame them.
I want to repeat here the final piece of advice I gave underrepresented students. DO NOT change who you are to fit in anywhere: not in academia, not in industry, not in this country. Wherever you WANT to be, there’s where you BELONG. We’re not going anywhere. We belong here. And everyone else will have to deal with that: it’s their problem, not ours.
Together, we resist.
Thank you, Marisol, Terrance Harris
and Drexel University College of Engineering for this great experience.