Upon reading Liakos’s article on the Science Leadership Program, I felt the need to correct him on a couple of things. First, the name of the program is not Science Leadership Program; it is The Science Leaders Program. Second, his statement: “The Science Leadership Program seeks diversity of gender and race as well as of economic backgrounds. Thus, need-based financial aid from the college is a requirement for eligibility in the program. While any freshman science student can apply to the program, women, minorities and financial aid recipients are the most likely to be accepted, according to the program’s website” is clearly incorrect. If you go to the program’s website and scroll down to the bottom, you will find the following statement: “All prospective science majors at Connecticut College who are U.S. citizens and who qualify for need-based financial aid are eligible for the program, but admission priority is given to women, students of color, students with disabilities, first-generation college students and students who are economically disadvantaged.”
Why am I making a big deal about this? Let me introduce myself first, I am a member of the first class of the Science Leaders Program, and as many of you know, I am profoundly deaf but I voice for myself and use interpreters and other accommodations in classes and meetings. Thus, I have a disability, and that is a minority that wasn’t mentioned in Liakos’s statement, but the statement, “students with disabilities” was mentioned on the program website. Very few deaf people actually attend colleges, let alone graduate with a science degree, so it is kind of a big deal when they do because the sciences are hard, of course, but harder for deaf people, with the complex vocabulary and the structure of the sciences. Most deaf people don’t have the same access to education that prepare them for colleges and thus they drop out in their freshman year. The same is true for all minorities, but some people just forgot that diversity isn’t just about gender, race, or economic backgrounds rather, diversity is a group of people that come from all kinds of backgrounds, be it gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, economic background, or other traits. The bottom line is that we all are humans and it is just that some groups are smaller than others. Many people I know who happen to have disabilities don’t often get the nod “Oh I understand what you are going through” or any kind of understanding from their peers without having to really explain their feelings, the way how people of color or other groups, can do, but the minorities have all kinds of challenges to overcome in order to be successful and that is what the Science Leaders Program is about. That is also what diversity means, to appreciate and be proud of who you are, of all the obstacles you have overcome, and the contributions you all make to Connecticut College to make it the place to be.
Sincerely,
Anne Kearney
