History

The Alliance of Graduate Students for Diversity was co-founded in Fall 2008 by graduate students Pam Hernandez (Educational Leadership), Cynthia Medina (Counseling Psychology) and Gennie Nguyen (Anthropology) to address the unique challenges facing graduate students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.

The Alliance focuses on building a supportive space and community for graduate students, providing networking, mentorship, education, and professional development opportunities. We are a new organization striving to better serve the underrepresented graduate students and allies at the University of Oregon. We welcome all people who are committed to social justice, equity and diversity.

Alliance Events

Socials — An informal gathering of all Alliance members and new graduate students is organized every term.

Faculty Panels — We have organized panels of faculty to share stories of their own experience and advice in academia.

Guest Speakers — We have invited Dr. Joe White (2010) and Dr. Vandana Shiva (2011) to campus.

Symposiums — In 2011, we organized an all day symposium on the topic of Microaggressions.

Graduate and Law School 101 — An annual program providing information and mentorship from graduate students to undergraduate students on the graduate application process.

Courageous Conversations – a series of cross-cultural dialogues for graduate students. We strive to create a safe and confidential space to have genuine discussions about our thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Membership

Membership of the UO Alliance is free. Sign up to be on the Alliance listserv by sending us an email at: uoalliance@uoregon.edu . We send regular announcements and upcoming events to our members through our listserv.

We are looking for leaders!

If you have ideas for projects that might contribute to enhancing equity and diver-sity in graduate education, join the Alliance LeadershipCouncil by emailing uoalliance@uoregon.edu.

Cynthia Medina and Johnathon Henderson