Adapted from the original posting on the Graduate School’s website.

Yu-Chi Wang, a PhD student in the psychological foundations of education program in the Department of Educational Psychology, has been awarded the Leadership in Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (LEID) Fellowship. The LEID Fellowship rewards PhD candidates who have demonstrated a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and/or social justice through scholarly activity and/or climate enhancing initiatives. PhD candidates who receive the award have an opportunity to devote full-time effort to write and finalize a dissertation during the fellowship year. Yu-Chi is one of only 15 PhD candidates across the University to receive this prestigious award.

Yu-Chi first began pursuing LEIDership as a co-chair for CEHD’s Gender Equity Symposium in 2017. Through this experience, Yu-Chi was able to help increase awareness and understanding of non-binary gender identities within CEHD, and Yu-Chi also became aware of just how necessary these pursuits were.

Since then, Yu-Chi has primarily focused on increasing awareness and understanding of trans identities and marginalized queer identities within Yu-Chi’s graduate program through informal initiatives. For instance, Yu-Chi has pushed faculty to identify and alter gendered and binary language in course material and continues to engage other students in conversations highlighting issues that trans and queer folx face both societally and within the university context.

Through these efforts, Yu-Chi hopes that fellow students, faculty, and staff will continue to educate themselves and work harder to create a better experience for marginalized folx.

Yu-Chi will continue to work to pursue leadership this year as a volunteer with Trans Lifeline and through Yu-Chi’s dissertation on “Effects of Intergroup Contact with Non-Binary Individuals through Board Games.”

Interested in getting involved in Yu-Chi’s research? Check out this flyer for more information.