Pronouns: she/her/hers
I’m a senior student at the University of Minnesota. My major is Statistics, and my minor is Computer Science. I’d like to use statistical knowledge and logistical thinking to solve problems about the youth and children. I’m a volunteer at BBBS (Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America), doing art activities with pre-school kids. In my spare time, I like photography. I’m excited to join the ideathon project!
Pronouns: he/him/his
I'm Joseph and am an Educational Psychology PhD student at the University of Minnesota. I'm interested in addressing educational inequality through psychological interventions that serve learners of marginalized identities and in the influence of identity on cognitive processing. So, for example, how does our own identity shape the lens through which we see the world and how do the identities of others influence our perceptions of them and of what they say?
Pronouns: she/her/hers
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Rhea is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota majoring in Human Physiology with a minor in Health Services Management. Rhea is passionate about understanding the root causes and eliminating systemic racism in the education and healthcare system. She has worked with youth as a summer school assistant teacher and camp counselor. In her free time, she enjoys writing poetry and discovering new coffee shops!
Pronouns: they/them/theirs
My research is broadly grounded in the idea of youth power - young people's ability to shape the communities and world they live in. As such, my work examines the intersections of service organizations, societal systems, criminalization, and race, and how these intersections impact young people. I believe that institutions such as the U.S. education system are responsible for uplifting the power of young people and that the school-to-prison pipeline is one of the most egregious displays of youth disempowerment.
My goal as an academic is to do research that is not only useful to the community, but that transforms systems (such as the educational system) into loving environments that contribute to what hooks calls "homeplace" (hooks, 1990). I use critical race theory as my primary framework in order to center race and power in my analysis. I want my work to be useful not only to those most impacted but to those who make decisions about how that impact happens.