SWE Graduate Community Blog Series for a Diverse and Inclusive Campus:
Perspectives from an International Student Towards Inclusive Language in Campus and Community Outreach Engagement
Dear SWE Graduate Community,
As part of the GradSWE Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) blog series, the D&I team has interviewed Iva Milisavljevic (she/her), a Ph.D. student in Ceramic Engineering at Alfred University. Iva shares her perspectives as an international student towards an inclusive language in campus and community engagement.
Interview:
Inclusive Language:
As an international student, can you share with us how using and being aware of the importance of inclusive language on the campus is very important to create a strong campus community? Can you address some examples of this that may apply?
Finding yourself in another country as an international student and learning about a new culture, although exciting, can be pretty stressful. As an international student myself, I find the use of inclusive language on campus extremely important. Being aware of gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, and religion or people's identity, especially for newly arrived international students, helps them integrate and accept the new environment much faster with less stress. It can give them a sense of belonging to the new community they joined and not make them feel like aliens, despite significant cultural and language differences with their home. After all, the easier this transition is done, the faster they [international students] will start focusing on why they came to another country in the first place, and that is to study and experience a new culture in full.
International students, especially those arriving on the campus for the first time, are often not familiar with the local culture and subtle nuances in communication. For such reasons, sometimes they can find themselves in funny situations and those that are not so pleasant. Therefore, universities need to play a vital role in this, enabling international students to understand the importance and the best ways to use inclusive language in their daily interactions on campus.
However, no matter how open-minded we are to new experiences and cultures, we all come with our pre-set ideas and unconscious biases that we make. Therefore, inclusive language becomes essential in building a strong campus community because, if properly introduced and practiced, it can help both students (local and international) and campus staff find common ground and better understand one another.
More importantly, the use of inclusive language on campus is not a one-way street. It requires efforts from everyone to create a safe and inclusive environment - that includes the university staff and local students as well. To understand the position of international students and communicate in an inclusive manner, they first need to be aware of the presence of diverse cultures in their campus community and the importance of existence and effective use of inclusive language. When we have everyone on the same page, we make sure that the campuses are building strong communities.
How can the usage of inclusive language be promoted on your campus?
On my first day upon arriving on my campus to start my doctoral studies, I attended the orientation session, which was designed to equip the newcomers with important information and tips on surviving the first few weeks on campus. Although this was just a few years ago, the awareness of the necessity of introducing the new students (local or international) with inclusive language on campus was relatively low. The situation has got a bit better over the years. However, the practice of introducing international students during the orientation days to the inclusive language is still insufficient to ensure that everyone on campus is aware of it.
Although there has been significant progress in increasing the presence and implementation of inclusive language on campuses in the past few years, there is still much work to be done. In many cases, introducing inclusive language on campuses is still confined to a limited amount of material distributed to the students during brief orientation sessions, official brochures, or guidebooks describing how to use inclusive language. While the efficiency of this kind of approach is somewhat inconclusive, the application on campuses is still not entirely implemented in "real-life" situations (conversations, emails, classrooms, etc.)
To achieve complete implementation, I believe that the universities should provide training to every campus community member. It should include both students (local and international, regardless of the years spent on campus) and university staff to ensure that the practice of using inclusive language is applied properly and effectively. As the language grows and constantly changes, ways of using inclusive language must be updated simultaneously, implying that these changes need to be regularly introduced to the campus community. Finally, regardless of the training approach (video, written, in-person discussion, or any other, which campus community finds effective), the universities need to ensure that everyone is included in the training to ensure its full implementation.
What is your opinion about, inclusive language can make strong relationships between graduate students?
From an international student's perspective, studying in another country is such an exciting and rewarding experience. Moreover, I also believe that the presence of international students on campus is significant for the local students because, in a way, they have a chance to get the student exchange experience, which provides them with insights into new cultures, ways of living thinking, and working. Graduate students can benefit the most from this because, in many cases, a diverse environment comprised of students who grew up in different cultures brings different approaches to thinking and problem solving, advancing research, and inspiring collaboration.
However, for this to happen, both local and international graduate students need to understand each other and bridge the differences. The use of inclusive language plays a crucial role in this process because, by definition, it enables people to understand each other, embraces diversity, and celebrates differences, which then builds trust and stronger bonds between the grad students.
I believe that inclusive language in grad school is such a powerful tool that it opens up numerous possibilities from which everyone can gain a lot once correctly and efficiently implemented.
Community Engagement:
How can international graduate students promote engagement in communities with cultural diversity? Why is it essential that graduate students engage in projects with communities outside campus in the context of supporting cultural diversity?
As grad students, we spend most of our days running around the lab and doing a great deal of research-related tasks. Therefore, getting caught up with that academic hustle becomes very easy as one gets focused only on academic excellence. But there should be more to that. As the "academic elite," I feel that we [grad students] should have a moral obligation to give back to society by getting involved in community work and helping or inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers. And one of the best ways to get engaged with the local communities is through the (K-12) outreach events.
Grad students in most schools come from different parts of the country or even the world and have different backgrounds, education, or culture, which readily creates diversity in their programs. However, the university campuses are located in areas where cultural diversity is minimal in many cases. I see the engagement of grad students to be pivotal in reaching out to the younger generations and providing more diversity to those communities and breaking any stigma about education and career paths, or just inspiring young minds. The importance of having grad students (including international students) engaged in projects with the local communities outside their campuses is to provide new perspectives and support to those communities in embracing cultural diversity to build a prosperous society.
On the flip side, the grad students' engagement does not only help communities to prosper; they [grad students] also gain a lot by participating in these projects. Besides valuable experience, grad students obtain insight into these communities, which may help them better strategize their work, get new ideas, or gain different approaches to problem-solving.
What can the campus do to interact with communities and promote cultural diversity? Can you share with us some of these activities? What could be the impact of these activities in the outside campus community?
There are many ways of getting engaged with the local communities to promote diversity and inclusion, such as organizing panel discussions, promoting different cultures (through food, music, art, etc.), and many others. The outreach events are another effective way universities can get engaged with the local communities to promote cultural diversity because, during these events, not only students but also parents are involved and are learning together. One of my favorite events (from the pre-pandemic era) was the outreach event for girls (8‒10-year-old) hosted by my university, including lab demos, design challenges, and panel discussions with the grad students. To me, this was a memorable experience because I got a chance to learn a lot from all of them and the event, but they also got an opportunity to be curious, ask questions, and learn about career paths they had never had a chance to come across.
As part of the GradSWE Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) blog series, the D&I team has interviewed Iva Milisavljevic (she/her), a Ph.D. student in Ceramic Engineering at Alfred University. Iva shares her perspectives as an international student towards an inclusive language in campus and community engagement.
Interview:
Inclusive Language:
As an international student, can you share with us how using and being aware of the importance of inclusive language on the campus is very important to create a strong campus community? Can you address some examples of this that may apply?
Finding yourself in another country as an international student and learning about a new culture, although exciting, can be pretty stressful. As an international student myself, I find the use of inclusive language on campus extremely important. Being aware of gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, and religion or people's identity, especially for newly arrived international students, helps them integrate and accept the new environment much faster with less stress. It can give them a sense of belonging to the new community they joined and not make them feel like aliens, despite significant cultural and language differences with their home. After all, the easier this transition is done, the faster they [international students] will start focusing on why they came to another country in the first place, and that is to study and experience a new culture in full.
International students, especially those arriving on the campus for the first time, are often not familiar with the local culture and subtle nuances in communication. For such reasons, sometimes they can find themselves in funny situations and those that are not so pleasant. Therefore, universities need to play a vital role in this, enabling international students to understand the importance and the best ways to use inclusive language in their daily interactions on campus.
However, no matter how open-minded we are to new experiences and cultures, we all come with our pre-set ideas and unconscious biases that we make. Therefore, inclusive language becomes essential in building a strong campus community because, if properly introduced and practiced, it can help both students (local and international) and campus staff find common ground and better understand one another.
More importantly, the use of inclusive language on campus is not a one-way street. It requires efforts from everyone to create a safe and inclusive environment - that includes the university staff and local students as well. To understand the position of international students and communicate in an inclusive manner, they first need to be aware of the presence of diverse cultures in their campus community and the importance of existence and effective use of inclusive language. When we have everyone on the same page, we make sure that the campuses are building strong communities.
How can the usage of inclusive language be promoted on your campus?
On my first day upon arriving on my campus to start my doctoral studies, I attended the orientation session, which was designed to equip the newcomers with important information and tips on surviving the first few weeks on campus. Although this was just a few years ago, the awareness of the necessity of introducing the new students (local or international) with inclusive language on campus was relatively low. The situation has got a bit better over the years. However, the practice of introducing international students during the orientation days to the inclusive language is still insufficient to ensure that everyone on campus is aware of it.
Although there has been significant progress in increasing the presence and implementation of inclusive language on campuses in the past few years, there is still much work to be done. In many cases, introducing inclusive language on campuses is still confined to a limited amount of material distributed to the students during brief orientation sessions, official brochures, or guidebooks describing how to use inclusive language. While the efficiency of this kind of approach is somewhat inconclusive, the application on campuses is still not entirely implemented in "real-life" situations (conversations, emails, classrooms, etc.)
To achieve complete implementation, I believe that the universities should provide training to every campus community member. It should include both students (local and international, regardless of the years spent on campus) and university staff to ensure that the practice of using inclusive language is applied properly and effectively. As the language grows and constantly changes, ways of using inclusive language must be updated simultaneously, implying that these changes need to be regularly introduced to the campus community. Finally, regardless of the training approach (video, written, in-person discussion, or any other, which campus community finds effective), the universities need to ensure that everyone is included in the training to ensure its full implementation.
What is your opinion about, inclusive language can make strong relationships between graduate students?
From an international student's perspective, studying in another country is such an exciting and rewarding experience. Moreover, I also believe that the presence of international students on campus is significant for the local students because, in a way, they have a chance to get the student exchange experience, which provides them with insights into new cultures, ways of living thinking, and working. Graduate students can benefit the most from this because, in many cases, a diverse environment comprised of students who grew up in different cultures brings different approaches to thinking and problem solving, advancing research, and inspiring collaboration.
However, for this to happen, both local and international graduate students need to understand each other and bridge the differences. The use of inclusive language plays a crucial role in this process because, by definition, it enables people to understand each other, embraces diversity, and celebrates differences, which then builds trust and stronger bonds between the grad students.
I believe that inclusive language in grad school is such a powerful tool that it opens up numerous possibilities from which everyone can gain a lot once correctly and efficiently implemented.
Community Engagement:
How can international graduate students promote engagement in communities with cultural diversity? Why is it essential that graduate students engage in projects with communities outside campus in the context of supporting cultural diversity?
As grad students, we spend most of our days running around the lab and doing a great deal of research-related tasks. Therefore, getting caught up with that academic hustle becomes very easy as one gets focused only on academic excellence. But there should be more to that. As the "academic elite," I feel that we [grad students] should have a moral obligation to give back to society by getting involved in community work and helping or inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers. And one of the best ways to get engaged with the local communities is through the (K-12) outreach events.
Grad students in most schools come from different parts of the country or even the world and have different backgrounds, education, or culture, which readily creates diversity in their programs. However, the university campuses are located in areas where cultural diversity is minimal in many cases. I see the engagement of grad students to be pivotal in reaching out to the younger generations and providing more diversity to those communities and breaking any stigma about education and career paths, or just inspiring young minds. The importance of having grad students (including international students) engaged in projects with the local communities outside their campuses is to provide new perspectives and support to those communities in embracing cultural diversity to build a prosperous society.
On the flip side, the grad students' engagement does not only help communities to prosper; they [grad students] also gain a lot by participating in these projects. Besides valuable experience, grad students obtain insight into these communities, which may help them better strategize their work, get new ideas, or gain different approaches to problem-solving.
What can the campus do to interact with communities and promote cultural diversity? Can you share with us some of these activities? What could be the impact of these activities in the outside campus community?
There are many ways of getting engaged with the local communities to promote diversity and inclusion, such as organizing panel discussions, promoting different cultures (through food, music, art, etc.), and many others. The outreach events are another effective way universities can get engaged with the local communities to promote cultural diversity because, during these events, not only students but also parents are involved and are learning together. One of my favorite events (from the pre-pandemic era) was the outreach event for girls (8‒10-year-old) hosted by my university, including lab demos, design challenges, and panel discussions with the grad students. To me, this was a memorable experience because I got a chance to learn a lot from all of them and the event, but they also got an opportunity to be curious, ask questions, and learn about career paths they had never had a chance to come across.
Bio: Iva Milisavljevic (she/her) is a 4th year Ph.D. student in Ceramic Engineering at Alfred University, working on a novel method of solid-state growth of single crystals. Her research focus also includes transparent ceramics and epitaxial films for optical applications. Iva holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Belgrade University in Serbia. Iva is an active member of the SWE community, serving this year as a member of the WE Local Advisory Board and the Program Development Grant (PDG) Committee, including the local SWE chapter at her university. She also supports the work of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) by serving as a delegate of the student-led committee within the Society called the President's Council of Student Advisors (PCSA). Outside of research, she enjoys hiking, yoga, and long walks in many parks in the Upstate New York area.
Contact information:
email: im6@alfred.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivamilisavljevic/
Yareni Lara-Rodriguez
Content Creator
Diversity & Inclusion Team
SWE Graduate Community (GradSWE)
Contact information:
email: im6@alfred.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivamilisavljevic/
Yareni Lara-Rodriguez
Content Creator
Diversity & Inclusion Team
SWE Graduate Community (GradSWE)
