Statistics Assistant Professor Jonathan Auerbach likes to give students hands on experience in their assignments. What he didn’t realize is that a project to get his students to measure the level of diversity at George Mason would lead him to win the Office of Diversity Outreach and Inclusive Learning (DOIL) Inclusive Excellence Trailblazer Award.
The award is presented to faculty, staff, students, and educational partners that have supported diversity and equity inclusion efforts within the College of Engineering and Computing.
“Using their statistics training, students were able to measure various dimensions of diversity at Mason like age, race, and gender,” says Auerbach.
The students within Auerbach’s statistics writing intensive course participated in the diversity assignment. Auerbach says the general consensus through the assignment is that Mason is in fact as diverse as students experience when they walk around campus.
But the students also identified opportunities to make Mason more inclusive, based on both the data and their own personal experiences. These findings will be shared with the Office of Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusive Learning.
“I always look for projects to get students excited about statistics. This is something that, as members of Mason’s community, they can all feel a part of,” says Auerbach. “They bring both their statistical training and their own experiences to the assignment.”