Kwanzaa Day 7- Imani (Faith)
Happy New Year! May it be filled with GOOD HEALTH, endless joy, and the kind of prosperity that brings peace and contentment to your heart. May blessings surround you in every step you take and guide you toward beautiful NEW BEGINNINGS Here’s to a YEAR OF GROWTH, love, and countless cherished memories together. Wishing you all a bright and fulfilling 2025!!
What’s New: An Upcoming Book by the STEM-US Center
The 4th Annual Convening of the HBCU STEM Undergraduate Success Research Center was held October 31-November 2 at Virginia State University. After 8 months of planning the event brought together around 30 of our colleagues from across the country to sow the seeds for an edited volume on Academic Interventions. The book’s 10 chapters will continue a strengths-based conversation on what HBCUs do best and what we can do better. HBCUs are disproportionately more successful in producing African American STEM degree holders. We already know that the reasons for the success are tied to relationships formed within the HBCU culture and the individual efforts of HBCU faculty and staff to establish a supportive learning environment. However, programmatic successes have proven difficult to replicate across the various HBCU contexts and even harder to scale and sustain. We have long suspected that the source of the difficulties was systemic and required more than the committed efforts of any one investigator, department or institutional unit.
A recent report authored by the Board on Science Education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS) confirms this analysis and provides the framework for our book that is due out next fall. Edited by myself with Rihanna Mason and managing editor Jon Grahe, the new book will use the model presented by the report that emphasizes four dimensions of scaling; spread, depth, sustainability, and shift in ownership. The four dimensions call for radical changes in the way intervention research is conducted and how funding is dispersed. Hopefully, the book will accelerate measurable and sustainable progress and serve as yet another harvested fruit from the STEM-US Center.
A full version of the report Scaling and Sustaining Pre-K-12 STEM Education Innovations: Systemic Challenges, Systemic Response is available here.
What’s New: The GAWD Movement
On Sunday December 22, I had the pleasure of participating in the first GAWD Movement event GAWD is for “Grown Ass Women Dreaming” and the movement is as dynamic as the name. Birthed by Michelle Chatman, anthropologist, University of District of Columbia, GAWD invites Black women to use their power to “reinvent a life of freedom, fulfillment, and joy!” and to do this by “putting yourself first…at least for a little while!”
Dr. Chatman is one of the founding leaders of the Analytic Hub, which is the research arm of the STEM-US Center. Ideas for the GAWD movement have been percolating for many years but early streams of it can be seen in writing connected with the Hub’s faculty intervention, the CareFull Scholars. In fact, research from the Analytic Hub revealed that African American Women at HBCU’s bear the brunt of responsibility for shepherding students through college. Informal advising and relationship building is not usually recognized as part of the tenure packet despite being a significant commitment of heart and mind. Creating spaces for recognition of this contribution is rare and so we, as Black women, must create safe spaces for ourselves.
Learn more about joining the GAWD Squad here.
What’s New: Dr. Talley Retires from VSU – My Next Phase
On Sunday, December 15, my family honored me with an epic celebration to honor my 26 years as an educator. The hybrid gathering brought together about 40 folks representing all of my communities. This included my 88-year-old mother, my final graduate student and my 15 year-old grandson. A former NSF program officer was in attendance who is now a friend and a role-model. The gathering was soul-fulfilling and beautiful with wonderful vegan food and my favorite mint tea. Only my daughters could have made it so perfect.
So, while I have retired from Virginia State University as of December 31, I will not retire from the STEM-US Center or with assisting Dr. Gail Hollowell with the Analytic Hub or this blog. In addition, I have some things to complete and to begin:
1. This year, I was elected to a three year term for the NSF Education Directorate, Advisory Committee, which is under the direction of Dr. James Moore. I see this role as a way to contribute to future funding of STEM research by helping imagine new avenues or areas of emphasis for the National Science Foundation.
2. Project Knowledge, the intervention research effort I helped start in 2014 now has branches in different departments at VSU and is seeking new funding. Partnerships at the local high school will continue as well as collaborations with community organizations. I will continue to serve as an advisor to those efforts when requested.
3. Commitment to my own health and well-being as directed by my new physician, Dr. Asena Madison. Dr. Madison is board certified in Life-Style Medicine where sweet potatoes are prescribed for inflammation before medicines. I was new to this field and so I started doing my own research. I now have a shared book report and research paper on Undo It by Dean Ornish, MD, founder of Lifestyle Medicine. I share this information with folks committed to Intensive Lifestyle Changes in 2025.
- Eat Better (& Drink more water)
- Move More
- Stress Less
- Love More
- Sleep 7 hours
We don’t know how federal policy changes will impact public education in the coming year. However, our history as a people has proven that there is safety, solace and power in community. Just as important, though, is Soul-Care. Caring for our hearts and not just minds and bodies is absolutely essential. Rest is power. Self-Care is not a luxury but a necessity. Eating, Moving, Praying, Loving and Sleeping are all connected! These are lessons I have learned and now hope to spread.
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