DEI COMMITTEE
- Silvina Arias
- Nancy Boury
- Mark Gleason
- Megan Harrison
- Claudia Lemper-Manahl
- Allen Miller
- Gabriela Morel Gadea
Need more information? Contact the DEI Committee
EVENTS
DEIB Breakfast Fun!
We had a blast at our last event. We learned about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. We had great food and had the opportunity to meet the people from our Department. Here are some pictures!
RESOURCES ON OUR CAMPUS
- CALS Diversity & Inclusion Programs
- Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion
- Multicultural Student Affairs
- International Students and Scholars
- LGBTQIA+ Student Services
- Student Disability Resources
- Status on Women and Gender Equity at ISU
- University Library DEI resources
- DEI Calendar
INCIDENT REPORTING
If you have observed or been a target of a bias incident, harassment, hate crime, or discrimination, please report the incident via the Campus Climate Reporting System.
DEI STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: STORIES OF CONNECTIONS
Kamusta? Is the way you say ‘how are you’ in Filipino. I’m hoping you’d answer all is well, amid Covid-19. I’m Julie Aiza Mandap from Philippines, a country with 7,641 islands in Southeast Asia. It is, indeed, a paradise for ocean lovers and a famous summer destination; but because of the pandemic, seashores are currently taking a rest.
I finished my MS Plant Pathology program at ISU in December 2019, where I was advised by Dr. Gary Munkvold. I am also a recipient of the Fulbright-CHED scholarship program. I had been in the PLPM Department since Fall 2017. When I arrived in Iowa, I was so thrilled to see acres and acres of cornfields, since aside from the fact that I like to eat corn, my research study for my ISU years involved corn. I worked on Aspergillus flavus and insect interactions in stored non-Bt and Bt maize hybrids as my research project. I learned how the presence of A. flavus affected the insects and vice versa in relation to the presence of Bt proteins in maize. I’ve seen and counted numerous molds and insects at varying stages during almost my entire graduate student life. Believe me, that is an exceptional experience!
While I enjoyed working in the lab, and in Seed Pathology Lab, in particular, I found recreational activities in the Department and conferences a lot of fun too. Also, being part of the graduate student organization as a vice-president helped me hone some soft skills. Once we had the canoe/kayak race, which our lab has bragged about winning ever since. In conferences, getting to know fellow plant pathologists always fascinates me. Plant pathologists are few relative to other fields, but there’s a lot of careers that you can explore and navigate within this field. Being a grad student abroad certainly stretched my insights in plant pathology as a profession.
I flew back home in December 2019, and it had been only 3 months since I started back to work when the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was implemented due to Covid. I’m teaching plant pathology, with mycology and postharvest diseases as specialization, in the Institute of Weed Science, Entomology, and Plant Pathology, in the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
I’ve been excited to work again with my colleagues after 2 years of study leave and share my ISU experiences with my students, but then classes were suspended, and social distancing had to be observed. Aside from making adjustments to shift our classes into online platforms, which is a real challenge in a developing country, I got involved in efforts such as raising funds and awareness related to Covid. To make sure that I wouldn’t just binge watch on Netflix during this lockdown and keep a sense of purpose, my friends and I decided to make do-it-yourself face shields. We managed to make a total of 700 face shields so far, which were then distributed to our local hospitals, municipal offices, police force, and groups involved in the taskforce against Covid.
Now that I’m back in my home country I often think of my experiences in ISU, people I’ve met, friends made, and stories heard. It’s very motivating to move forward when packed with these diverse connections from the past.
I leave you with this excerpt from a poem by Max Ehrmann that I find healthy to ponder on nowadays, “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence… As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons… Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul”