Student Panellist 1

Tarushi, a student panelist for the history department, believes it's important to have diverse voices, like hers as a brown woman, on review panels. She enjoyed being part of a team with different academics and gaining their perspective. The opportunity to review a department and discuss improvements with department heads and students was valuable. They also discussed interesting topics like AI and its impact on education. Tarushi feels her analytical skills improved and she gained confidence in networking and speaking about her passions. Hi, my name is Tarushi. My role was the student panelist for the history department. I think it was very important to me because the way I got contacted was I'm the president of a South Asian women's society. I had someone contacting me because they thought it would be important to have a brown woman's voice on a panel like this. Personally, I felt that that's important because a lot of the times when reviews like these happen, they talk about diversity quotas and things like that. I think it's important that we have people of color in those spaces and going through reports like this so they can bring a different perspective onto these reviews. I felt good that I could contribute in that way. The highlight I think was being on a team with different academics and also seeing their point of view. As a student, I think it's the right opportunity because you don't really get to be in those spaces or to look at a department and to review it like that. Also, to discuss with department heads and students from those departments how we can improve the way we approach their education in the future. Also, things that we talked about like AI, which was very interesting, and how those things will affect education in the future. I'm sure it's not just the department I reviewed but the department that I am in. I'm sure that they're having those discussions as well. I definitely think in the initial stages, going through all the reports, I think I improved my analytical skills going through all the SEP documents and everything. Also, just meeting new people, networking with them, and just building my confidence and being able to address people and talk about things that I'm passionate about. For more information, visit www.fema.gov