Social Changemakers: Apply for the ODI Social Justice Mini-Grant
The Graduate School Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) is thrilled to announce the launch of the Social Changemakers Video Series, celebrating the innovative projects of ODI Social Justice Mini-Grant Awardees. These grants were created to support Northwestern graduate students in advancing ideas of social justice and belonging on campus, and the Video Series highlights the remarkable work of those who were awarded the grant and chose to share their projects with the Northwestern community. This series is an opportunity to learn about the meaningful work being done by our students, and we invite those who share our commitment to social justice and inclusivity to apply for the 2023 ODI Social Justice Mini-Grant.
Graduate students and graduate student affinity groups whose work reflects the principles of social justice, community building, diversity and inclusion, and/or sustainability are encouraged to apply by Monday, May 1.
Learn how these mini-grants have supported past recipients below:
STEM Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Committees Training, NU SACNAS
“The mini-grant was used to fund a DEI committee training open to all STEM departments/committees at Northwestern. The mini-grant allowed NU SACNAS to provide a platform for professors and students to reflect, exchange, and discuss about their experiences and parallels to foster empathy and understanding. Additionally, it allowed DEI committees to have a framework as to how to execute their work. Finally, it inspired and fomented the foundation for departmental DEI committees to provide community-building activities.”
Learn more about the STEM DEI Committees Training project here.
Hothouse Development Series, Black Graduate Artist Group
“Black Graduate Artist Group used the grant to develop the Hothouse Development Series which served as a collaborative space for original work by graduate and PhD students of color at Northwestern. We aimed to support anything meant to be performed: this means plays, films, movement, or any other kind of performance art. Over the course of three quarters, we were able to support and produce five original projects. We successfully shared amongst our communities by uplifting interdisciplinary collaborations both inside and outside of Northwestern. We believe that having spaces that de-center whiteness are critical for artists of color to take risks when making racially, culturally, or ethnically specific work.”
Learn more about the HotHouse Development Series here.
Graduate and Undergraduate Initiatives for Advancement and Resources (GUIAR), Comunidad Latinx (CLX)
“The mini-grant was used to start a mentorship program between Latinx graduate and undergraduate students at Northwestern. The grant was extremely influential because it was used to pay for some of the backend work such as creating a logo and guidelines. The Grant was also used to pay for most of the programming the project had this year such as social events, workshops, and one on one mentoring.”
Learn more about the GUIAR project here.
Police Brutality Impact on Stress in Pregnancy, Northwestern & NorthShore University Health System
"The mini-grant funding was used to purchase qualitative data analysis software for our team to analyze the interview data we collected in 2020-2021. The funding is also being used this summer to pay focus group discussion participants for their contributions and time. The mini-grant funding allowed us to move our research project along and expand our examination of the effects of police brutality and violence on pregnant Black Chicagoans from their own voices."
Learn more about the Impact Research Project here.
Shades of Persuasion: How Race and Skin Tone Influence Public Persuasion, Jordan Daley
"We used our funds to recruit participants for our initial study and to fund early logistic and material needs for our follow-up study. Without the funds, we would not have been able to recruit such a robust sample, and our methods/materials for both this study and the follow-up study would have been far more limited. Finally, it freed up collaborators from needing to seek funding elsewhere, to spend more time thinking carefully through design and material implementation."
Learn more about the Shades of Persuasion study here.
Categories: Around Campus, Other