Resources for underrepresented students
Earlham aspires to welcome a broadly diverse student body, faculty and staff to its campus. With a quarter of our students identifying as domestic minorities and another 20 percent coming to Earlham from homes outside the United States, our classrooms, clubs and activities benefit from the wide variety of perspectives and experiences our students bring.
Our faculty and staff also come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Many have lived and worked outside the United States, and they make a point of drawing on those experiences in their interactions with students. We also make an effort to make Earlham a safe and welcoming place for LGBTQIA+ communities. Following are links to information about some of the resources we offer in order to make our campus more diverse, equitable and inclusive.
We strive to not only represent all of our students equally but give opportunities and resources to those students who have been historically underrepresented.
The Multicultural Resource Center
The Multicultural Resource Center was created to advance the College’s commitment to fostering an environment that is inclusive, equitable and diverse. It serves as a student-centered, safe space that supports underrepresented and marginalized communities, while cultivating the holistic empowerment of all students. The Multicultural Resource Center provides programs, services and activities that promote unity, identity development, academic excellence and leadership. Consistent with the College’s Quaker heritage and liberal arts mission, it aims to foster a campus climate that encourages all students to live, learn and thrive in a diverse and global world.
Library Immersion Fellowship Team (LIFT)
The LIFT Program matches small groups of first-generation students with a personal research librarian during seven weeks of the fall semester of their first year at Earlham. Students will engage with trending issues, while acquiring research competencies, library experience and personal connections with an Earlham administrative faculty member and a few of their classmates in a small-group setting. In the spring, the LIFT Program offers a course based on career discernment, designed to help students learn how to find research and apply for internship opportunities. LIFT also offers a free off-campus term during May for first-year, first-generation students, co-led by a librarian/faculty pair.(pending developments and guidelines regarding COVID-19).
The Ronald E. McNair Program
The Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program is designed to prepare students who have traditionally been underrepresented in graduate studies for the journey leading to the Ph.D. (The U.S. Department of Education, in this instance, defines underrepresented as first-generation college students from any race, from low-income backgrounds, or Black, Hispanic or Latinx, Native American, or Pacific Islander.) As participants in the program, students will have access to skills-building courses and tutoring, research experiences with a faculty mentor and individualized assistance through the graduate school application process.