Ellen Thomas was originally told at her alma mater, the Utrecht University in the Netherlands, that women couldn’t study earth sciences. But she refused to let this stop her.
Fitisemanu, who is Samoan, initially worried about feeling out of place, but he quickly found a welcoming community of scientists working to support each other in their professional endeavors.
Usually when it comes to science and doing research, I will only bring the scientific aspect of myself, but at the conference, I was able to bring my whole self.
“I say to the student, ‘Explain to me what the barriers are for you? Where do you run into the challenges because of your disability?’ This is where we put in accommodations to ameliorate the barriers to access.”
I’m the first Mexican—not even Mexican, the first Spanish speaker—in the MB&B grad school. So I didn’t have anyone with a similar experience as me. SACNAS for me is really a place where I can talk with people.
