Colorado School of Mines receives INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine’s 2022 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award 

Colorado School of Mines and Mines Diversity, Inclusion and Access (Mines DI&A) have received the 2022 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the largest and oldest diversity and inclusion publication in higher education.

The Inspiring Programs in STEM Award honors colleges and universities that encourage and assist students from underrepresented groups to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Mines will be featured, along with 78 other recipients, in the September 2022 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.  

Inspiring Programs in STEM Award winners were selected by INSIGHT Into Diversity based on efforts to inspire and encourage a new generation of young people to consider careers in STEM through mentoring, teaching, research and successful programs and initiatives.  

“At Colorado School of Mines, we believe that a diverse and inclusive campus environment inspires creativity and innovation, which are essential to the engineering process. We also know that in order to address current and emerging national and global challenges, it is important to learn with and from people who have different backgrounds, thoughts and experiences,” said Dr. Amy E. Landis, Presidential Fellow for Diversity Inclusion & Access at Mines. 

Among the Mines programs recognized by INSIGHT Into Diversity were Mines’ DI&A Ambassadors and Advocates program and the K-12 Virtual Classroom Takeover outreach program. 

Mines DI&A Ambassadors are a group of undergraduate and graduate students, academic faculty, administrative faculty and classified staff who host workshops on diversity, equity and inclusion topics as they relate to fostering a culture of inclusion and enacting positive social change on campus.

Mines Advocates are a group of faculty and staff who are committed to being allies for gender equity. These individuals hold interactive, scenario-based campus workshops with their peers, raise awareness of inequities for women in STEM in their spheres of influence and receive guidance from an advisory board of women colleagues. 

The K-12 Virtual Classroom Takeover was modeled off the success of the Mines' section of the Society of Women Engineers in transforming on-campus STEM conferences to a virtual, kit-based experience during the peak of COVID-19 in 2020-2021. This outreach program aims to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers by sending Mines students and faculty to classrooms across the state of Colorado. The experience involves “zooming” into classrooms for a 50-minute “takeover,” and includes a short interactive STEM demo, an overview of Mines and a question-and-answer panel. A box of activity supplies and Mines swag is mailed to each teacher just in time for the experience. Each lesson is tailored to the grade level and at least one state of Colorado’s science educational standards. The K-12 Virtual Classroom Takeover also exposes students to different majors at Mines and their application to a variety of industries, highlights the diversity found within STEM disciplines and Mines student body, expands access to Mines outreach programming to school districts in Colorado that are unable to attend in-person events due to distance, cost or both and elevates Mines to top-of-mind for college bound students.

To learn more about diversity, inclusion and access efforts at Mines, go to www.mines.edu/diversity/.