Upcoming conference to focus on the theme of belonging

The Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging will host the 2022 Maximizing Student Potential conference from noon to 5 p.m. Feb. 23. The conference will be presented virtually, and registration is free and open to all faculty, staff and students throughout the Purdue system.

This year’s conference theme is “Belonging — A Virtual Gathering for Exploring, Reflecting, and Acting.” The program will feature three highly celebrated and successful speakers who will share stories, insights and practices that support belonging.

Maximizing student potential involves a shared responsibility between students and institutions to both understand and act on student achievement data that show some groups of students have not had the same experiences and outcomes at Purdue. The groups include first-generation students, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, underrepresented minority students, rural students, and students with disabilities, among others.

“This year’s conference focus will inform and energize the Purdue community as we continue to develop a sense of belonging for all students,” says John Gates, vice provost for diversity and inclusion. “Every student entering Purdue has demonstrated the capacity to thrive in their education — the work of Maximizing Student Potential (MSP) is to support students in reaching their goals.”

The keynote speaker for the conference is Shaun Harper, provost professor in the Rossier School of Education and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, where he is the founder and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center. Harper’s research focuses primarily on race, gender and other dimensions of equity across educational contexts. Elected to the National Academy of Education in 2021, he is the author of a dozen books and over 100 other academic publications.

Other speakers will include John Silvanus Wilson Jr., former president of Morehouse College in Atlanta and current executive director of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ Millennium Leadership Initiative, and Chantal Levesque-Bristol, executive director of the Center for Instructional Excellence and professor of educational studies at Purdue.

After the three speaker presentations, participants will hear from a student panel before ending the day with takeaways and points of connection shared by the leaders of various programs at Purdue. They will help identify future opportunities and next steps as well as address questions posed throughout the day.

Conference registration is available online. After the event, recordings of all presentations will be available to registered attendees on the Maximizing Student Potential Conference webpage.

For more information, contact Christopher Munt, director of inclusive excellence for Purdue's Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, at munt@purdue.edu, or Dan Guberman, senior instructional developer for the Center for Instructional Excellence, at dguberma@purdue.edu.