CLEAR (Center for Learning, Education and Research in the Sciences)

HHMI Inclusive Excellence Grant

Oberlin is one of just 24 colleges and universities nationwide awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence grant as part of ongoing work to address institutional inequities and promote leadership in improving science education.

group of women students in purple lab jackets doing experiments.
Students make and record their observations in the lab of neuroscience professor Gunnar Kwakye.
Photo credit: Nora Rodriguez

Through the Inclusive Excellence grants, HHMI seeks to catalyze the capacity of institutions to engage diverse undergraduate students in the sciences.

HHMI initiatives take a variety of forms at Oberlin. Dedicated teams of students, staff, and faculty work to identify institutional challenges and barriers and envision new opportunities and community structures that will advance the participation and success of students of all backgrounds in STEM disciplines.

There remain substantial gaps in the persistence of underrepresentation of students of color in STEM fields. As the first institution in higher education to admit black students and women, Oberlin aims to continue its historic role in promoting and modeling equity in higher education through participation in the HHMI grant.

To promote institutional transformation, Oberlin's HHMI Igrant will support seven STEM departments in funding a visiting faculty position. This will provide course release for continuing members of the faculty and teaching staff so they can participate in and develop programs, assessments, curricula, resources, and other tools to advance this initiative.

The academic departments are biology, neuroscience, chemistry, geology, psychology, geology, and mathematics.

Discover more about the HHMI Inclusive Excellence grant, its objectives and proposed outcomes. 

Oberlin Inclusive Excellence Initiative/STEM