Undergraduate Recruitment and Retention

Goals

The Undergraduate Recruitment and Retention subgroup organizes programs, events, and conducts outreach in the Harvard College community to foster a warm, welcoming, and inclusive environment within the undergraduate EPS community and recruit prospective concentrators from a diversity of backgrounds and identities.

Group Description

Pursuing an undergraduate education in geoscience should be an open, accessible, and equitable experience for college students from any and all socioeconomic, racial, and gender identities and backgrounds. Through community programming and events, speaker series, and peer-based advising programs, we seek to build an inclusive and open undergraduate community within the EPS department based on values of mutual respect, support, and inclusion. Our subgroup works closely with the Head Tutors and the Geological Society (or Geosoc, an undergraduate organization of students interested in geoscience) to build programming related to diversity and inclusion in EPS and at Harvard College and to recruit prospective concentrators.

Current Projects

  • EPS Advising Buddies: A student-run peer-advising program that matches current upperclassmen concentrators with prospective concentrators to build mentorship relationships and offer advice/share experiences related to concentrating in EPS, doing research, career planning, and more. In our inaugural semester, we successfully matched 13 prospective students with upperclassmen buddies!
  • EPS Open Houses: This semester, we held two virtual "Open House" Q&A events, one with undergraduates and graduate students and one with faculty, to answer questions related to academics, research, community, and careers in EPS for prospective concentrators, specifically geared towards underrepresented students in geoscience and First Gen students. 
  • GeoSoc Talks: A student-run speaker series focused on sharing experiences in science and professional development within geoscience, geared towards helping students understand how to pursue a career in geoscience and opening up honest and thoughtful conversations on reckoning with and overcoming cultural and social barriers within the geosciences and the STEM community at large.

Contacts: two co-chairs to be recruited