Sabrina Li, a graduate student in Nicole Benedek's lab, received a 2022 Graduate Diversity and Inclusion Award in Social Justice from Cornell.
Li was one of three graduate students in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering who led the effort for the Academic Strike for Black Lives that came about as a response to the murder of George Floyd, and worked with students over the course of several months to develop new ideas for making the department more inclusive.
Presented by the Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement and the Graduate and Professional Diversity Council, the award was one of several presented to graduate and professional degree students during a recognition ceremony on May 12.
The Social Justice Award is presented to students “who have shown a commitment to identifying and addressing inequities, creating avenues of access, advancing diversity and inclusion, and/or promoting human rights within and/or beyond Cornell.
One nominator said that Li worked toward "improving transparency for the MSE qualifying exams and improving MSE recruitment efforts for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds," and that as part of a working group that formed in response to her efforts, "Sabrina engaged in difficult conversations with faculty/staff/students about department culture, and was instrumental in starting the MSE Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Group.”
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