2018 Cohort Matriculation News

Over the past year, the IRT has assisted 94 students in their graduate school preparations in their pursuit of doctoral and Master’s degrees in the humanities, social sciences and education fields. We are excited to report that the 2018 cohort received nearly 353 acceptances to graduate school programs, and 70% received partial to full graduate school funding at the following institutions:

Auburn University*
Boston College
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Emory University
George Washington University
Harvard University
Indiana University, Bloomington*
LeHigh University*
Michigan State University, Education

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Admissions Report by Monica Reum

Monica Reum
Monica Reum, IRT Admission and Programs Specialist

This year, the IRT committed itself to serve more students and just admitted our biggest class! We will assist 121 students through the Ph.D. process, and 45 students through the master’s degree process. In sum, we will support 166 students. Nearly half of our class identifies as Black or African American, 37% identify as Latinx, 18% identify as Asian, and 1% of our cohort identify as Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander.

 

2019 Cohort Ethnicity

Within the past year, our number of institutions increased from 85 to 100! This increase to 100 institutions would not have been possible without our alumni, who hosted information sessions on their campuses — THANK YOU! Over the past three years, we also doubled the number of HBCU institutions. We hope to build this trend and aim to increase it in three years. If you attended an HBCU, or are currently working at an HBCU as a faculty member or administrator, I encourage you to reach out to me regarding ways we can collaborate to ensure we can identify and recruit additional students at HBCU’s.

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IRT’s 29th Summer Workshop by Leislie Godo-Solo

Godo-Solo head shot
Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91, Education Programs Specialist, IRT

Without a doubt, June and July are exciting months in the IRT office. As we embark upon school list advising with a new cohort of 166 IRT scholars, the office also is buzzing in anticipation of the 29th Summer Workshop and the arrival of 29 Interns. This year’s Interns will descend on Andover on July 2, 2019. The cohort is a diverse one representing 24 institutions:

Allegheny College
Bard College
Binghamton University
Brown University
California State University, Sacramento
City College
Columbia University
Davidson College
Emory University
Morehouse College
Notre Dame of Maryland University
Queens College
Salem State University
Scripps College
Smith College
Southern University
Spelman College
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Pittsburg
University of Texas, Austin
Vassar College
Wayne State University

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Alumni Accolades – June 2019

-2002 Cohort-

Congratulations to Women’s Studies Professor LaKisha Simmons, IRT ’02 who is the recipient of this year’s Black Celebratory Cornerstone Award! Selected annually by graduating students, the award recognizes faculty or staff who enhance the academic and social progress of African American students at the University of Michigan.

-2017 Cohort-

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, IRT ’17 was featured in a spring Ms. Magazine article written by Chivas Sandage, “Ms. Muse: What Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie’s Womanist Poems Tell Us About Love, Language and Race in America.” Mariahadessa is currently a PhD student at Brown University studying theatre and performance studies.

Tashal Brown, IRT ’14  and Eliana Castro, IRT ’15 contributed to the article, The Impossibility of Being “Perfect and White”: Black Girls’ Racialized and Gendered Schooling Experiences, first published in the American Educational Research Journal, May 2019. Read more on Eliana Castro by viewing her guest post.

 

 

Sara Mokuria, IRT ’05 was a guest presenter at Next City for an event in their online seminar series this past May. Sara Mokuria, is co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality and a Next City Vanguard and spoke about creating a world without police brutality.
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Creating a Syllabus that Centers Black History

monthly matters image

Creating a Syllabus that Centers Black History
 – by Andrea Adomako, IRT ’14

In James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers” (1963) Baldwin wrote the following:
The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become   conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education…is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white…to ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society.  

Today, considering the current socio-political environment we live in, Baldwin’s words still ring true. As students are taught to “ask questions of the universe and then learn to live with those questions” Black History has a historical role in inspiring the productive inquiry Baldwin speaks of. In recent years there has been a greater push to consider Black History beyond the month of February. Incorporating Black history year round is an important pedagogical shift that asks educators to elevate the history, events, and individuals that shape Black history both in the United States and globally. This shift begins first and foremost with the syllabus. Whether you are teaching a traditional History, English, or Engineering Course; or if you are teaching within an interdisciplinary field, the syllabus is the place to express and reflect your political and ethical commitments to Black History.
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