Our Crowdfunding Groups
The Geoscience Empowerment Network (GEN) is a community of students, postdocs, professors and staff within the Jackson School of Geosciences dedicated to increasing diversity within the geosciences--both here at the Jackson School and in the field as a whole.
Our plan to increase diversity in geosciences involves starting initiatives to recruit and retain minorities; fostering mentorship opportunities; and providing professional development and career-advancing skills through group meetings and networking events.
GEN is open to all members of the Jackson School who wish to find a supportive community focused on taking action to build a more inclusive and diverse geosciences community, and building career advancement skills.
We believe that creating a support network will foster a more diverse Jackson School community, and help students build the skills, experiences, and community connections needed for a successful career in geosciences.
The geosciences continue to lag in the engagement, recruitment and retention of traditionally underrepresented and underserved minorities, in comparison to other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
Diversity helps spark innovation, strengthens a community’s ability to tackle complex geoscience problems, and promotes widespread public Earth science literacy. Our vision is to drive scientific advancement at the Jackson School by building a diverse and inclusive research community.
The National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates show the pronounced lack of diversity in the Ph.D. degrees awarded in the geosciences from 1973 to 2012. You can read more about geosciences' diversity problem on the Jackson School student blog Science Y'all.
GEN has a lot of work to do and we need your help. In order to sustain this program, GEN needs donations to offset operational costs, to offer career-development programs to our current students, and to make connections outside of the Jackson School.
Our initiatives include:
Building Pipelines to the Jackson School:
Your support helps Jackson School scientists build relationships with minority-serving institutions, such as a historically black colleges, in order to promote the Jackson School and the geosciences as a whole, as well as build pipelines for future students. In addition, your support goes toward the establishment of a Jackson School Visiting Summer Internship Program where minority scholars outside of the Jackson School are paired with scientists for research at the Jackson School.
Minority Retention:
Your support provides funds to send graduate students to attend minority-serving conferences, provides professional leadership training for the Jackson School community, and allows for the establishment of minority retention scholarships enabling that provide funds so students can continue their research throughout the summer.
Minority Recruitment:
Your support can help boost the number of minority students in our graduate application pool by supporting visits for minority applicants during the Jackson School Prospective Student Weekend and by helping us to build recruitment fellowships for minority graduate students and postdocs.
Thank you for your support!
$54 represents each faculty member at the Department of Geological Sciences.
$90 represents the 90 research scientists at the Jackson School of Geosciences.
$257 represents the 257 undergraduate students at the Jackson School of Geosciences.
$507 represents the 507 undergraduate students and graduate students at the Jackson School of Geosciences and the Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program.
$761 represents each of the 761 students, postdocs, research staff, research scientists and faculty at the Jackson School of Geosciences.
$1,581 represents the Jackson School's on-campus community, including students, faculty and non-geosciences majors enrolled in Jackson School courses.
