The Genomics Institute’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee has awarded its annual DEI Action Award to Prajna Hebbar and Samira Vera-Choqqueccota.
This is an award our committee gives annually to recognize members of the Genomics Institute that are taking positive action to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in our campus community and beyond. It comes with a $500 prize.
Prajna Hebbar is a graduate student mentored by Benedict Paten. She is passionate about encouraging and empowering young people to learn computational skills, and received the award for her work with elementary school students. Prajna regularly volunteers at Gault Elementary School where she teaches programming to 1st and 2nd graders using life science concepts they are learning about in school, like butterfly pollination. She trains both students and their teachers in coding concepts using Scratch, a block-based visual programming language. Her efforts are helping teachers to update their curriculums and encouraging young children in Santa Cruz to envision themselves as scientists.
Samira Vera-Choqqueccota is a graduate student mentored by Mohammad Mostajo-Radji and David Haussler. She strives to make science education more accessible, and received the award for her work with the Braingeneers team to implement new tools for remote project-based learning. The experimentation technologies developed by the Braingeneers team are enabling high school and college students in under-resourced schools in California, Peru, and beyond to perform advanced cell culture experiments as part of their course work. Samira received multiple nominations for the award from colleagues that praised her for disseminating complex ideas in a concise and understandable way and being a strong role model for younger students.
Prajna and Samira were presented their awards at a special seminar on “Inclusive Excellence” that was co-sponsored by the Genomics Institute. In the seminar, guest lecturer David Asai, former Senior Director for Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, spoke about the importance of maintaining diversity and inclusion initiatives in higher education and praised the efforts of the awardees for their efforts to expand STEM education.
