This past school year Florida State University’s libraries hosted a diverse voice in STEM speaker series that more than 160 undergraduate students participated in. The series featured professionals from science, technology, engineering and math occupations.

The speak series was founded by STEM libraries, a group of FSU librarians and staff, that found from research those undergraduate students who were underrepresented were less likely to pursue a STEM degree, leading them to create this series.

According to the Pew Research Center, employment in the STEM field has grown 79% since 1990.

“As science librarians, our team has been exploring ways to provide library services and programs that address equity and diversity issues in high education […] diverse voices has been a fantastic opportunity to highlight and amplify the voices of scholars who have been typically underrepresented in STEM,” said Renaine Julien, director of STEM libraries.

The series directs its attention towards the challenges of underrepresented groups in STEM and how they navigate and progress through their academic career, as well as highlighting what it means to be a STEM scholar.

Discussions this past academic year were held virtually and featured speakers ranging from biologists to linguists.

This year’s speakers featured speakers were Carleen Sabusap, Ph.D., research assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Stephen Chelko, Ph.D., assistant professor in FSU’s College of Medicine; Jesusa Legaspi, Ph.D., research entomologist within U.S. Department of Agriculture; Antje Muntendam, Ph.D., associate professor in FSU’s Department of Modern Languages and Monica Abou Harb, Ph.D. candidate in FSU’s Department of Biomedical Sciences.

All discussions can be found at diversevoices.create.fsu.edu.