Highlights of my work in the areas of Diversity and Equity
Equity is defined as “the quality of being fair and impartial.” Often equity gets confused with equality. As a Korean American adoptee who grew up in Flint, Michigan, I encountered many inequitable practices growing up. I struggled a lot during my childhood. Many of the struggles followed me into adulthood and shaped who I am as a teacher. Here I want to highlight some of my work to fight back:
Macomb Community College
- Member of the Macomb Multicultural and International Initiatives (MMII) Committee
- Received my Level 1 and Level 2 Cultural Competency Certificates.
- Each semester I have my students create cultural displays that are viewed by thousands of community members at the county library, and I am working on an article to be published soon, hopefully, in MAA’s Convergence on my students’ projects. Although research in this area is limited, studies have shown that including international and global examples in the classroom is an issue of equity as they help students from all backgrounds relate to the material.
- Started a Mathematics and Culture Film Series with a discussion of the tough issues after each film.
- Started streaming my MMII presentations so that students in my online classes and others who might not be able to attend the on-campus presentation could still participate. It is easy to forget the online students, but it is an issue of equity that they should also be able to participate in the discussions.’
- Volunteered as part of the college’s Martin Luther King Day of Service as a site leader and judge for the Student Essay Contest.
- Contributed to the College’s Strategic Plan, making sure my voice was heard that issues of equity should be addressed.
- Took a sabbatical in 2019 to work on my “Everyday Math for Everyday People,” Project, which I hope will help address inequities in the classroom through the examples I have found to help make mathematics more accessible for all.
- Contributed to OpenStax’s Introductory Statistics
- Worked with my colleagues to convert most of our courses to using Open Educational Resources (OER), as I genuinely believe the cost of textbooks is an issue of equity. Using a book that all students can have available at no cost to them on the first day of class is the right thing for the success of all students.
TODOS: Mathematics for All
- Presented at the 2018 TODOS Conference on, “VOWEL: Vocabulary Overhaul: increasing understanding of Words in the English Language.” VOWEL project was a project created as a collaboration between an ESL instructor at my college and me when we determined that English was one of the barriers to many students at my college learning mathematics and being successful in mathematics classes at the college.
- Web worker member of TODOS Member Services Committee
- Member of the TODOS Nomination Committee
American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC)
- One of the founding members of the AMATYC Equity Committee.
- Executive Board Liaison for the Equity Committee from 2018-2019.
- Worked on AMATYC’s forthcoming Position Statement on Equity in Mathematics.
- Contributed to AMATYC’s Strategic Plan, making sure made sure my voice was heard that issues of equity should be addressed.
Midwest Institute for Intercultural and International Education (MIIIE)
- Attended two MIIIE Summer Workshops, creating modules for classroom use.
- Presented at the 2016 MIIIE conference on, “Infusing History, Sustainability, and Stewardship in the Mathematics Curriculum,” and “A Case for Integrating International and Intercultural Issues in the Classroom.”