Diane Silva Pimentel, Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Education, traces the roots of her local engagement to her “life as a native Rhode Islander, who is the daughter of Azorean immigrants, and a first-generation graduate of Brown.” She emphasizes ongoing learning and inspiration in “the rich communities around us” and focuses her work on supporting science teachers’ professional development based in culturally responsive and sustaining practices in order to attain equitable and empowering educational spaces for students in underserved communities. After 17 years as a science teacher in Rhode Island schools, Diane returned to Brown in 2017 to direct - and redesign - the Master of Teaching (MAT) program. According to Tracy Steffes, chair of the Education Department, the program “has long placed student teachers in area schools for a semester and provided a month-long immersive teaching experience—Brown Summer High School” that offers free enrichment courses to local high school students, but Diane led a redesign process that “recentered the entire [MAT] curriculum around a year-long residency in our partner urban schools” and focused on “the need for high-quality science and math teachers, teachers who can serve multilingual learners, and teachers whose backgrounds more closely resemble the students they will teach.” The department has also expanded its Community-Based Learning and Research (CBLR) courses on related topics (e.g., Tricia Kelly’s EDUC 0425: The Power of Translanguaging: Sustaining Multilingualism in Schools and Jacques LeSure’s EDUC 1015: Reimagining Power: Community-Driven Evaluation and Education) and developed a guide for instructors considering CBLR.

David Upegui, a science teacher at Central Falls High School, adjunct lecturer at Brown and co-author of Integrating Racial Justice Into Your High-School Biology Classroom (Routledge, 2024), attests to Diane’s positive impact not only in program leadership and in courses she teaches, but also in “small things she routinely does, like buying a book for a high school student, telling a pre-service teacher that they are enough, assisting other professionals with their writing (as she does with me), or helping the RI Department of Education.” She deliberately incorporates the voices of community members in her teaching (e.g., having a student with special needs and her parents speak in a class addressing special education). “All of us who historically have been underrepresented, disenfranchised, ignored,” Upegui says, “these are the voices that Dr. Pimentel amplifies.” Among the results of her leadership and the department’s broader commitment to developing long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with urban schools has been an increase in the proportion of STEM MAT graduates who choose to stay in and serve local communities in Rhode Island. Since 2021, 47% of STEM MAT graduates have taught in Central Falls, Providence, and other local districts upon graduation. Some have done so with the support of Brown's Urban Education Fellowship program, which forgives loans after three years of service in an urban school serving low-income students, a university commitment stemming from Brown's Slavery and Justice report in 2006.  

Many faculty outside the Education Department steward supplemental programming for local K-12 students with the complementary goal of creating more inclusive pathways in STEM. Amalia Culiuc, Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, has been involved in Girls Get Math, a summer program hosted by the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM), for its entire ten-year history. As a graduate student in Mathematics at Brown, with her own experience as a first-generation college student and underrepresented woman in STEM, she welcomed the opportunity to gain teaching experience, especially with young people who might fear math or consider themselves bad at it. “The goal is for the program not to feel like a class,” Amalia stresses, so activities include math games and modules based on students’ interests, such as political gerrymandering, epidemic modeling, and how Netflix knows what to recommend. In responses to this year’s student survey, 100% agreed that they were more interested in math than they had been before Girls Get Math and were satisfied with the opportunities to strengthen their math skills, learn new things and ask questions; as noted in this News from Brown story, some past participants have also gone on to study and work in related fields. Amalia and co-director Anarina Murillo, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, worked with Education colleagues to promote both the Brown Summer High School and Girls Get Math opportunities to potential participants. Brendan Hassett, director of ICERM, sees the program as aligned with the institute’s convening and outreach goals; the president of Math for America has also joined ICERM’s Education Advisory Board and offers a powerful model for connecting teachers and researchers.

Dan Harris, Associate Professor of Engineering, has run an Engineering day at Girls Get Math that many participants have considered a highlight. He arrived at Brown with experience in a similar program at the University of North Carolina and found lots of interest here as well; last year, more than thirty students and faculty participated in hands-on workshops following a welcome from Dean Tejal Desai. Commitment to this kind of educational outreach was one factor in Dan’s successful application for a prestigious NSF CAREER Award, and his lab has offered STEM and STEAM (integrating the Arts with STEM) sessions at local public libraries and at Youth Pride, an organization with which Ph.D. students in Monica Martinez Wilhelmus’ lab had collaborated. As much as faculty and graduate students “want to contribute,” there is a “nonzero barrier to entry,” Dan remarks. Departments such as Chemistry and DEEPS have invested in staff support for STEM education programs and have welcomed the involvement of colleagues in other departments. (The Chemistry Department is currently seeking volunteers to contribute to the interdisciplinary STEM Day that will bring ~200 local high school students to Brown on March 25, 2025. Click here to learn more and volunteer.) The university’s Community Engagement Council now has a K-12 Partnerships Committee compiling information about existing efforts and considering ways of coordinating opportunities to enable more engagement and impact. 

Joi-Danelle Whitehead, Assistant Dean for Equity Initiatives and University K-12 Engagement, has strengthened partnerships with local public schools, with Brown offering scholarships that have led to major increases in the number of Pre-College participants from PPSD and other local schools and youth serving organizations engaging in programs inclusive of the STEM for Rising 9th and 10th Graders Program. Now in a university-wide leadership role with the Office of Community Engagement and co-chair of the CEC’s K-12 Partnerships Committee, Joi is a key liaison and resource, working with people on and off campus to enhance coordination, assessment, and impact. Want to get involved yourself? Check out the Brown and Providence Schools webpage and contact Joi at joi-danelle_whitehead@brown.edu.