Pathways Voices: Episode 1

Maddie Albanese and DeeSoul Carson:

From the Center for Faculty Advancement at New York University.

Group:

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

DeeSoul Carson:

I’m DeeSoul Carson.

Maddie Albanese:

I’m Maddie Albanese.

DeeSoul Carson:

Faculty development is at the core of what we do.

Maddie Albanese:

Our programs are devoted to faculty support and development.

DeeSoul Carson:

From recruitment to career advancement…

Maddie Albanese and DeeSoul Carson:

… throughout the faculty life cycle.

Maddie Albanese:

We are also creating pathways for a younger generation of academic scholars, researchers…

Maddie Albanese and DeeSoul Carson:

… and future professionals.

DeeSoul Carson:

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Maddie Albanese:

There are only beginnings.

DeeSoul Carson:

How do you get there?

Maddie Albanese:

Who paved your way? Your path?

DeeSoul Carson:

How did you get here?

Maddie Albanese:

Who brought you along and held your hands?

DeeSoul Carson:

How do you get anywhere?

Maddie Albanese:

Whose shoulders are you standing on today?

DeeSoul Carson:

Who paved your way? Whose shoulders are you standing on? Who brought you along and held your hand?

Maddie Albanese:

Are we there yet? How do you get there? How do you get there?

DeeSoul Carson:

How do you get there?

Maddie Albanese:

How do you get there?

Maddie Albanese and DeeSoul Carson:

There are only beginnings.

Walter Parrish:

We all have a gift. We all have a purpose that is for our society to contribute to the larger society. And when we lose people to different fields, when we lose people in the education system, we’re losing untapped talent, untapped potential. We’re losing creativity that could have been contributed to the world intelligence, new knowledge and an experience that we just don’t get to hear. My name is Walter Parrish. I am the director of Diversity and Inclusion for the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

So I’m a first generation college student. I went to a performing arts high school and I studied music for all of my childhood. And I thought I wanted to be a music teacher. And the only way to be a music teacher was to go to college and pursue that degree. And so I was talking to my high school teacher and he was telling me, “This is the path that you take.” And so I sought college out myself sort of through our high school as well. We had some folks come and listen to us play, which was not uncommon. And through there I was able to go to an institution and audition. And that was sort of my first experience really at the college level. And I thought, wow, this is something that I could do. This is something that I think I could make work. And it took off from there.

I wish I could say it was my personality that changed my course. I went into music education and within my first month of my experience in college, in that music program, I experienced discrimination. I experienced favoritism towards other students. And I found that very shocking because not only were we playing music that I had played in high school, but they sought me out. And so I was experiencing all of these things and it started to make me not like music anymore. And I was so involved on campus, I went to one of my campus advisors and I said, “I have no idea what I want to do with my life anymore. I thought I wanted to do music, but I’m starting not to like music anymore because of the program here.” And so I confessed to her, I said, “I want to do what you do. I want to go to school and do what you do.” And from there, I realized I could actually have a career in higher education. So I switched my major to psychology because I thought it was more closely aligned with counseling or other related fields to higher education.

I always had a fascination with diversity. I grew up in Philly, it was a very diverse population. My high school was very diverse. That music program though, the first week I experienced racism in the music program. The music professor, who was also the chair of the department, pulled five of the Black students, the only black students in the class and the one Latino students to the side and said, “You’re going to fail my class if you don’t try harder.” And that was day two of the class. And I was so confused because I said, “Well, you all recruited me to be here and we’re learning things that I learned in high school, and it’s day two. So how bad can we be doing?” So I promised myself, one, that I would never let someone take something so sacred as music away from me again. And then number two, that I would put myself in a position to ensure that no one or less people as possible could make those type of comments to students, because it totally detoured my life.

Diversity is all of us, right? A mix of people, a mix of personalities, diversity of thought, race, gender, sexuality, religion. All of that is diversity, right? Inclusion is how are those people invited to the table? Do they have a voice? Are they visible? Are they invited? Right? And then equity is how are we ensuring that there is justice and fairness across those groups? Are people receiving equitable amounts of resources, access? And it’s so important because it affects all of us. It doesn’t just affect Black people or Latino people or any other marginalized group. Those are certainly the most affected, but it has an impact on all of us. And oftentimes people don’t realize how important it is until it hits home and it affects them.

DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion, also, there’s other sort of letters that have gone behind that. So there’s belonging. There’s also accessibility, which is highly important because we’re all mobile creatures and that can stop at any point. That affects all of us, no matter our skin tone, no matter where we come from, no matter our background. And we have to realize that these components are what makes our society great, and it affects all of us in every way. We learn from each other. We interact with each other in these ways. And it’s vital in order to ensure that everyone feels like they have a place and that they belong.

It’s important that we keep diversity, equity, and inclusion and accessibility centered because everyone wants to feel like they belong. It’s a basic need that we all have on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And when you feel like you belong, you can be your best self, you can reach your maximum potential, you can feel good. And it’s better to collaborate as well, because people see you as valuable and you’re felt as valuable and a part of the team. So in order to make environments like that and have them thrive, we need to be thinking about everyone and being considerate of others’ needs and not just ourselves. And I think the more we can be considerate of others, the more we can hopefully advance those efforts.

When we talk about students and how to support students or faculty or residents that our office supports, particularly underrepresented folks, I try to steer away from the deficit model, right? Let’s do this because these students need to catch up. Let’s provide these resources because these students aren’t doing what they need to do to get here. And that’s not always the case, right? There are oftentimes environments where people who cause folks to lose motivation. Similarly to how I talked about that music professor of mine, I completely left music. But that’s something that’s so core to me. It’s innate to me. I still love music. I still feel it deeply in my soul. But that’s something that has been sort of lost for quite some time. And that gift, I can’t share that gift anymore because I’m no longer in that space.

So when we think about the ways in which we show up, we aren’t in control of how we present, right? My Blackness, my being a man, first generation college student, what I wear, all of those things should not matter in my access to certain spaces, that shouldn’t matter in my ability to succeed. People shouldn’t judge me on that. Instead, they should say, here are the ways that you might need support. Here are the things that you might need to put you on an equal playing field to your peers, so that way you can be your best self. But when we continue to judge people on our identity, it only hurts us and it only shows how much we don’t value people truly.

Maddie Albanese:

Are we there yet?

DeeSoul Carson:

We’ll see you next time.