Engineering Alumnus to Host Campus Seminar on Diversity in STEM

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Jakym Battle

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A University of Arkansas alumnus, Jakym Battle, will host a seminar on campus Monday, Jan. 29, to discuss how academia, the business community and the public can ensure that diversity and inclusion are a reality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the STEM fields.

Battle, a 2015 graduate of the Ralph E. Martin Department of Chemical Engineering, works for DuPont in Detroit and is the founder of "STEM is the New Black," an organization dedicated to exposing minority students from underrepresented communities to opportunities in STEM.

Battle's presentation is titled "Reshaping the Culture: A Discussion on STEM Culture and Responsibility." The discussion begins at 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29, in the Faulkner Performing Arts Center, 453 Garland Ave. on the university campus, and members of the campus community and general public are welcome to attend. There is no cost.

The presentation will focus on ways to reshape a STEM culture with a history of discrimination and inequality. A live stream will begin at approximately 2:55 p.m. on the Chemical Engineering YouTube page.

"In recent years, we have only scratched the surface of issues of diversity and inclusion within STEM," Battle said. "A complete cultural reform in which we build a new culture that fully embraces change instead of grudgingly accepting it remains to be done."

Battle is a native of Atlanta and holds dual degrees in chemical engineering and chemistry from the University of Arkansas and Fort Valley State University, respectively.