The Ong lab is dedicated to confronting and ameliorating the systemic racism that is perpetuated against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in all areas of our society, not least of which includes academia. We recognize that Dartmouth College is currently a predominantly White-serving institution, and that this environment creates significant professional and personal barriers for current and prospective BIPOC members of our lab. The Ong lab holds increasing representation and retention of underrepresented minorities in science as one of its major and sustained goals.
As such, the Ong lab actively seeks to create an inclusive space that acknowledges, respects and supports differences in experience, knowledge and perspective. We actively search for and recruit new lab members that increase and/or support increasing the diversity, equity and inclusion of our academic community. We also seek to address systemic racism in our work, whether in our studies of agroecology or through our community outreach. We acknowledge that BIPOC are disproportionately affected by food and land insecurity as well as environmental degradation, topics that are central to much of our work in agroecology. Beyond studying these issues, the Ong lab also strives to become a model of diversity, equity and inclusion here at Dartmouth.
We encourage you to read the EEES community statement on anti-racism and equity for more information.
The EEES Scholars Program is a workshop designed to diversify the next generation of academic leaders in the fields of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Earth Systems Science and Environmental Social Sciences. In this program, talented students (EEES Scholars) will be selected and invited to Dartmouth College for a 3-day period of activities designed to provide the tools to expertly apply to graduate schools, and a deeper understanding of the Dartmouth EEES program. Students with backgrounds historically underrepresented in STEM and environmental fields are particularly encouraged to apply. Interested students should feel free to reach out for more information!