The Murray Center acknowledges that we reside on the traditional land of the Munsee Lenape people. | |
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MEDIA PICKS
Meet Irina Karamanos: Anthropologist, political organizer, partner of Chile’s recently elected president, Gabriel Boric, and reluctant First Lady. Not only does Maramonos consider the title archaic, she wants to set an example for the partners of other world leaders.
According to a CNN survey, women are stressed and exhausted. Inflation. Gun-related violence. Life/work balance. And that’s just the short list. In advance of the midterms, political observers were predicting these were the issues driving women to the polls — but once again, the experts underestimated women’s real concerns. Read all about it!
Save the Date! February 11 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and the Murray Center is all over this one. Got ideas on how to celebrate? We’re all ears. And for some inspiration, take a look at this terrific video.
Archdaily.com is a valuable resource for the architecture and design community and includes an excellent repository of information for and about women, including a link to a new video profiling three women architects.
Climate change has a disproportionate impact on women and children, but where are their voices at events like the COP27? In an article in Scientific American the former Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the co-chair of the Women in Energy Initiative at Columbia University have a suggestion: give women the microphone.
Founded in 1973, Lambda Legal has been in the forefront of championing the rights of the LGBTQ community. Now, in response to the increasing visibility of the trans community on college campuses, Lambda has compiled a Know Your Rights resource.
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Native American Heritage Month
Presidential Proclamation
MURRAY CENTER
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“Indigenous people are still here, and they’re thriving. Don’t treat them as a relic of the past.” (nativegov.org)
Mindful that November is Native American Heritage Month, the Murray Center wants to acknowledge the people who inhabited this land before European colonization and forced migration: The Munsee Lenape tribes.
While most of the Munsee Lenape migrated west and north, some still live in New Jersey (Ramapough Lenape).Various other tribes in the Tri State area still exist as well.
We invite other groups within NJIT to join us in increasing awareness about the history of the land on which we reside and honoring its original inhabitants. We cannot change the past; however, through education we may be able to avoid repeating it.
To find out more about Land Acknowledgements as a way of honoring Original Indigenous Inhabitants, click here.
You can also familiarize yourself with the names and locations of Native tribes by visiting https://native-land.ca/ and inserting your zip code.
SHOULD NJIT
MAKE A LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT?
“A land acknowledgement or territorial acknowledgement is a formal statement that a public event is taking place on land originally inhabited by indigenous peoples,” Wikipedia tells us. An increasing number of US colleges and universities explicitly recognize that their institutions are situated on space acquired through colonial displacement of Native Americans. For example, our neighbor, Rutgers University, recognizes this displacement on its website:
“We acknowledge that the land on which we stand is the ancestral territory of the Lenape People. We pay respect to Indigenous people throughout the Lenape diaspora – past, present, and future – and honor those who have been historically and systemically disenfranchised. We also acknowledge that Rutgers University, like New Jersey and the United States as a nation, was founded upon the exclusions and erasures of Indigenous peoples.”
Princeton University pledges “to build relationships with Native American and Indigenous communities and nations through academic pursuits, partnerships, historical recognitions, community service and enrollment efforts. These communities and nations include the Lenni-Lenape people, who consider the land on which the University stands part of their ancient homeland.” William Paterson University takes a similar stance, recognizing: “that we reside on the Lenapehoking — the traditional land of the Lenape people, past and present. We acknowledge the Lenape people as the indigenous stewards of this colonized land.”
Should NJIT make a similar acknowledgement?
Click here and let us know think.
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MURRAY CENTER CALENDAR
Trans Week Awareness
November 13 - 19
Take the 2022 Trans Survey
Wednesday, Nov. 16
GirlUP - Membership Meeting
4PM - 6PM
290 Campus Center
Thursday, Nov. 17
Trans Week Awareness Vigil
1PM - 1PM
CC 2nd Floor Gallery
SWE Presents Sadie Hawkins Game Night
Games - Food - Prizes!
5PM - 8PM
CBK 315
GIDE/CME Friendsgiving Postcard Event
4PM - 6PM
230 Campus Center
Sunday, Nov. 20
Fall Open House
Murray Center Info Brunch
12PM - 1PM
National Trans Day of Remembrance
Tuesday, Nov. 22
Thursday Classes Meet
Wednesday, Nov. 23
Friday Classes Meet
Thanksgiving Break
Nov. 24 - Nov. 27
Saturday, Nov. 26
Saturday Classes Meet
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This month’s Murray Center Woman to Watch is Ayushi Sangoi, a doctoral candidate in Biomedical Engineering and a data analyst/researcher in NJIT’s Vision and Neural Engineering Laboratory. An Albert Dorman Honors College student during her undergraduate years, Ayushi graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2020 with dual degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Engineering.
Winner of a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, Ayushi is an innovator and a leader who has already had significant impact on women in STEM at the university, and in the Newark community. While still in high school, she was doing creative engineering design work, powered by her deep and abiding interest in helping people, “creating affordable solutions for real-world problems.” She brought that ambition with her when she came to NJIT, and she emerged as a student leader almost immediately—helping to found the NJIT student club GirlUp, a local embodiment of the United Nations global campaign to raise awareness and support for women and girls who live in places where it is especially difficult to be female. Ayushi also organized an ongoing outreach program to Newark schools, offering hands-on STEM workshops to at-risk students. In 2022, Major League Hacking (MLH) named her to its Top 50 list, recognizing her exceptional contributions to the tech ecosystem and STEM education.
In addition to her work as a mentor/role model to younger girls in the community, Ayushi has also been the Murray Center’s go-to recruiter when we host events for prospective women students and their families. She is a superb ambassador for her research lab, able to explain the work she does in vision and neural engineering to a wide range of audience members and to convey both the intellectual excitement of the work itself and the satisfaction she gets from knowing that her efforts will have significant impact on the quality of life experienced by people with traumatic brain injury.
Despite her busy research career, Ayushi is taking time this fall to help revitalize NJIT’s GirlUp club. Newly elected e-board members include: President Nahomy Zuniga (nsz@njit.edu), Vice President Sofia Usmani (su22@njit.edu), and Treasurer Vidhi Dholakia (vd286@njit.edu). “We are focused on gender equity, making sure disadvantaged girls are given the opportunities and support they need to succeed,” Ayushi stresses.“ The world needs new solutions and leadership now!”
Please click on the link below to find out more about how you can join Ayushi and other GirlUp members in their efforts: https://bit.ly/NJITGirlUp.
Please direct any questions to girlup@njit.edu.
| Check out our past e-newsletters filled with valuable information, past events, and scholarships here! | |
WELCOME TO THE MURRAY CENTER!
The Murray Center is your place to relax, enjoy a little television or take a lunch break!
USE OF COMPUTERS, MICROWAVE & REFRIGERATOR
You are welcome to stash your lunch (labeled please!) in our fridge, use the microwave or computer lab--be our guest.
HOURS OPEN:
MONDAY-THURSDAY: 10:00AM - 5:00PM
FRIDAY: 10AM - 4PM
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“Voting isn't the most we can do, but it is the least.”
“To have a democracy, you have to want one,” Gloria Steinem reminds us. The good news is that it looks like we do! Especially young people. The Z Generation (Zoomers)—the 18–24-year-olds who fill the seats in NJIT’s classrooms—showed up at the polls in record numbers during the recent midterm elections. And they had a decisive impact, especially in key battleground states.
Confounding stereotypes that see them as screen-ridden and self-absorbed, more and more young people are taking the time to register to vote. The numbers are up 6% in the last four years—and 53% of the new young voters are women.
The Murray Center is proud of our small contribution to that historic increase in engagement. We have woven registration and voter education into all of our activities this fall (“Your Voice. Your Vote.”).
But the work doesn’t end here.
Every crucial human challenge—up to and including climate change—is a political challenge. Which is to say, politics doesn’t begin and end in November. It requires a 24/7 belief in our own agency—our ability to make a difference.
I’m a child of the 1960’s—an acolyte of activist Allard Lowenstein and a sometime colleague of Gloria Steinem. (Yes, I’m old.) In those days, we believed, perhaps naively, in the power of one person to change the world— by joining with other people similarly empowered. I’m glad that naïveté is back in fashion.
Join us.
Dr Nancy Steffen-Fluhr she/her/hers
Director, Murray Center for Women in Technology
Associate Professor, Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS)
“Voting isn't the most we can do, but it is the least. To have a democracy, you have to want one.” Gloria Steinem. My Life on the Road (2015).
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OPEN THE FULL NEWSLETTER FOR RECENT & UPCOMING EVENTS
*CWL Meeting *Culture Shock Workshops
*NJECC Innovation for Impact Conference
*Land Acknowledgement Poll
*Scholarship Opportunities
More!
| 10/12: MC Breast Cancer Awareness | 10/20: MC Domestic Violence Awareness | |
10/26 and 11/12: "Culture Shock!"
Career Success Workshops
| Workshop facilitator Juliet Chin Hart (right) and sponsor Liz Miller. |  | |
As part of a new initiative to advance diversity, equality, inclusion, and belonging at NJIT, the Murray Center is partnering with the Office of the Interim Provost and the Dean of Students to offer a series of special career success workshop for a select group of students. Entitled “Culture Shock! Learning to Succeed in New Environments”—these interactive, 3-hour sessions are designed to help students adapt to the challenging new organizational cultures they will encounter on their first job.
The workshop facilitator, Juliet Chin Hart, is the principal and founder of Hart & Chin Associates, LLC, a firm that coaches STEM researchers in leadership, management, and communication skills, with an emphasis on how diversity affects team synergies.
The first workshop in the series, held on October 26, was made possible by a grant from URI External Advisory Board member Liz Miller, CFA & CFP, President of Summit Place Financial Advisors, LLC. The second workshop (November 12) was specially designed for students in NJIT’s Secure Computing Initiative, a program funded by an NSF CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) grant. The workshop is part of an ongoing collaboration between Murray Center Director Nancy Steffen-Fluhr, co-PI on the NSF-funded New Jersey Equity in Commercialization Collective project (NJECC), and SCI PI and Computer Science Chair Vincent Oria—aimed at broadening participation in the crucial field of cybersecurity.
| 10/27: NJECC "Innovation for Impact" Conference | NJ Secretary of Higher Education Brian Bridges delivers the NJECC Conference welcome. | |
On October 27, NJIT was the site of the first annual “Innovation for Impact Conference,” hosted by the New Jersey Equity in Commercialization Collective (NJECC)—a project funded by an Advanced Partnership Grant from NSF in order to help broaden participation in academic technology commercialization. (Murray Center director, Nancy Steffen-Fluhr, is a Co-PI on the grant.) The conference provided an opportunity for both new and experienced academic inventors to learn about the commercialization process and resources within and outside of NJ.
For the complete conference program, go to: NJECC Annual Conference - Innovation for Impact: Commercializing Academic Discovery
| Judith Sheft (at podium), Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission of Science, Innovation and Technology, leads a panel discussion on “keeping innovation momentum going” at the NJECC Conference. | 10/31: THE MURRAY CENTER ROCKS HALLOWEEN! |  |  |  | |
11/3: VPs McLeod and Boger Discuss Campus Climate Survey at CWL Meeting
On November 3, the Committee on Women’s Leadership (CWL)—co-chaired by HSS Lecturer Risa Gorelick, and Miosotis Hernandez, Assistant Director of Domestic Recruitment—hosted a hybrid meeting featuring a presentation on the results of the recent NJIT Campus Climate Survey by HR VP Dale McLeod and Marybeth Boger, VP for Student Affairs and Dean of Students.
Audience members—women faculty, staff, and administrators—had a number of questions for the presenters, including: Based on the results of the campus climate survey, what next steps does NJIIT plan to implement that would make the university a “best place to work”? How will women faculty and staff be included in that plan? What specifically will be done to make women on campus feel welcome, respected, and safe? Questions about pay equity and work-life balance support were also raised.
A full recording of the event is available here.
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Members of the NJIT Society of Women Engineers took part in this year’s annual SWE National Conference from October 20-22 in Houston, Texas-- the “World’s Largest Conference for Women in Engineering and Technology.” “Our e-board swesters had the amazing opportunity to attend the collegiate leader reception during this WE22 national conference. We are looking forward to next year’s conference in LA,“ says NJIT SWE President Jianna Auguilar.
| From left to right: SWE President Jianna Aguilar, Outreach Coordinator Dhruvi Rana, Academic Chair Norma Cervantes Galeana, and Treasurer Sanya Majmudar. | |
CONTACT THE MURRAY CENTER | |
Phone: 973.642.4885
Fax: 973.642.7205
Email: womenscenter@njit.edu
Website: womenscenter.njit.edu
Address: 323 Martin Luther King Blvd, Newark, NJ 07102
Staff:
Dr. Nancy Steffen-Fluhr, Director
973.596.3295 | steffen@njit.edu
Fran Sears, Special Projects Manager
973.642.4672 | fsears@njit.edu
Kassandra Pérez, Coordinator
973.642.7441 | bkp42@njit.edu
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KNOW WHERE TO GO
Click here for a campus map and virtual tour!
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SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS & REU OPPORTUNITIES
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a direct source of scholarships for undergraduate and graduate women and is also a terrific clearing house for information from other funding sources. The deadlines are fast approaching, so check out this excellent source of information today
Pathways to Science (a project from the Institute for Broadening Participation) is an excellent source of information on scholarships, REU’s, internships and fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students, post docs, faculty, and administrators.
Cards Against Humanity is awarding the Science Ambassador Scholarship. The deadline is Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 11:59 PM CST. For more information, click here.
The Women Techmakers Scholars Program - formerly the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Program - is furthering Dr. Anita Borg's vision of creating gender equality in the tech industry by encouraging women to excel as active participants and leaders in the field. Information about scholarships and internships is now open. Check the individual listings for application deadlines.
Since 1881 the American Association of University Women has been a leader in advancing professional and educational opportunities for women. In the last year, the AAUW has awarded over 6 million dollars in grants and fellowships and applications are now open for this year. And make sure to explore the local AAUW chapters for the details about additional scholarship opportunities.
The Society of Physics Students scholarship applications will be available on January 2, 2023, with a submission deadline at 11:59PM on March 15, 2023.
Looking for an REU opportunity? The National Science Foundation's website is an excellent source of information. Click here for more information.
Need help figuring out how to finance your undergraduate or graduate degree? New Jersey's Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA) is a valuable source of information about financial assistance for college students and their families. Click here for more information.
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