Want to be a part of the STEM Routes community? Find here all the information necessary to join us!

We do not like hierarchy! In our community, your voice matters. We practice a flat leadership structure wherein anyone gets a say regardless of membership or duration of participation. Though we do have "roles", the goal of these positions is to distribute responsibilities rather than authority. Further, we use consensus-based decision-making, an indigenous practice of self-governance that amplifies every community voice rather than suppressing those in the voting minority.

Membership Requirements & Expectations

STEM Routes is run by graduate students; we understand how busy and volatile your schedule can be! For this reason, we have no membership requirements. We want you to want to be here. We preserve passion in our work by showing up because we care about our work, not because someone is requiring us to do the work. Our ask if that you contribute what you can and communicate when you need support. STEM Routes is structured such that responsibilities be delegated and passed around to accomodate fluctuations in our schedules (such as TA-ships, comprehensive exams, or co-ops).

Communication & Organization

We use several resources to keep up with everything we are working on. If you join the organization, we will invite you to join these communication portals:

  • Slack: This is how we all keep up with everything we are doing. Our core members are all involved in the Slack. This is where you will find reminders for upcoming meetings or events, meeting notes, and advertisements for community programming. We have channels for each of our clusters as well as social activities, like our .
  • Google Drive:听STEM Routes manages a lot of files. We generate spreadsheet trackers, grant applications, and forms all through our Google Drive. We have folders for each of our events and all of our clusters.
  • E-mail:听We also use e-mail to send out meeting reminders and other communication that needs to be sent out to members in bulk (like advertising events).听

Clusters

STEM Routes is broken up into 5 clusters, each of which manage specific aspects of STEM Routes' work. In most cases, a program involves collaborative contributions from several clusters. For example, planning a workship involves the Workshop cluster to plan the event, the to secure funding for food and survey attendees, and the Outreach & Communications cluster to advertise. Each cluster meets individually weekly to discuss what was accomplished the previous week and how to distribute responsibilities for the upcoming week. In addition to cluster meetings, at least one member from each cluster must attend the general STEM Routes meeting to discuss the work of each cluster over the past week and expectations for the upcoming week.

Uplift听

The Uplift program ...