Building Community: One AWM Chapter’s Tale of Programmatic Outreach

Abstract

Since its founding in 2013, the Kutztown University Association for Women in Mathematics student chapter has built a supportive community of women students and faculty on campus and beyond. This article aims to share our successful experiences with the broader community by presenting our pre- and mid-pandemic AWM activities including Mathematics Day for Girls, Women's Empowerment Day, Beyond Pink-Collar Jobs, and our Kutztown University AWM Virtual Lecture Series. Feedback from past and current participants of our AWM student chapter is also included.

KEYWORDS:

• Association for Women in Mathematics
• student engagement
• extracurricular events
• collaboration
• women in mathematics
• community outreach

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the following students for sharing their thoughts about how our AWM chapter and its activities have positively impacted their collegiate experiences: Paul Barton, Emily Danko, Brooke Eshbach, Anna Lengner, Jessica Licker, Lindsey Moyer, Isaac Reiter, and Charlotte Saternos. Vanessa Maybruck would like to thank her amazing fellow officers and her wonderful advisors for making her experience with AWM so valuable. She also wants to thank the KU Mathematics Department and larger KU community for attending our events!

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lyn McQuaid

Lyn McQuaid is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at Kutztown University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from Lehigh University. Her current research interests are women in mathematics and magic squares.

Vanessa Maybruck

Vanessa Maybruck is a Ph.D. student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Department of Applied Mathematics. She is also pursuing her Ph.D. certificate in Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology through CU's BioFrontiers Institute. She is interested in mathematical modeling and data science, particularly as they relate to biological, scientific, and social problems in the public sphere such as equity, public health, and climate change and conservation. Vanessa graduated from Kutztown University in May 2022 with dual degrees in Applied Mathematics and secondary mathematics education with a minor in Biochemistry and spent 2.5 years as president of KU's AWM chapter.

Yun Lu

Yun Lu is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Kutztown University. She received her M.A. degree in Computer Science and Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from Wesleyan University in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Her research interests include optimization and mathematics education.