Community Resources
This page is under construction. Thank you for your patience!
At the moment this is just a list of resources that will hopefully help to support a more diverse and inclusive community within our department. It will be better organized later.
National Mathematics and Statistics Organizations:
- National Association of Mathematicians: Organization that “seeks to promote excellence in the mathematical sciences for underrepresented American minorities in general and African-Americans in particular.”
- Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS): Society that aims to further the success of Chicano/Hispanic and Native American students in obtaining advanced degrees, careers, leadership positions, and equality in STEM.
- Association for Women in Mathematics: Their mission statement reads “The purpose of the Association for Women in Mathematics is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity and the equal treatment of women and girls in the mathematical sciences.”
- Mathematically Gifted and Black: Website “Featuring the Accomplishments of Black Scholars in the Mathematical Sciences”.
- Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE): Organization whose goal is to strengthen the ability of women students to successfully complete PhD programs in the mathematical sciences and to place more women in visible leadership roles in the mathematics community. Along with the summer session, EDGE supports an annual conference, travel for research collaborations, travel to present research and other open-ended mentoring activities.
- Committee on Minorities in Statistics: Part of the American Statistical Association whose goal is to foster participation in statistics and data science by members of minority groups that have been historically underrepresented in the field of statistics.
Programs supporting students at the K-12 level:
These organizations are of interest not just for potential K-12 students who might want to participate, but also for undergraduates and graduate students, as these organization often hire more advanced students to help run the programs and to be mentors to the participants.
- PROMYS: A six-week summer program at Boston University designed to encourage strongly motivated high school students to explore in depth the creative world of mathematics in a supportive community of peers, counselors, research mathematicians, and visiting scientists.
- PROMYS Math Circles: Part of enhanced efforts on behalf of PROMYS to reach out to mathematically talented students in Massachusetts, particularly those from low-income backgrounds and underrepresented in STEM, to help them explore challenging mathematical problems within a stimulating and supportive mathematical community.
- GirlsGetMath@BU: A five-day non-residential mathematics program at Boston University that is open to high schoolers, regardless of gender, who live in the greater Boston area.
- BU LERNet: Boston University Learning Resource Network; Coordinating enrichment programs in science, mathematics, and engineering for K-12 students.
- BEAM (Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics): A program that brings advanced enrichment learning to low-income students, specifically in STEM fields. Right now they operate in NYC and LA.
- Black Girls Code: Devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. They provide coding workshops to young students in underrepresented communities, in languages like Scratch or Ruby on Rails. They are a national organization with chapters in various cities. Their Boston Twitter is here.
- Cambridge School Volunteer: Tutoring program for Cambridge public school students that helps support their academic and personal success.
- This is Statistics: Career information for statistical jobs – materials geared toward students (high school and beyond), parents, and teachers.
Programs and Opportunities for Undergraduates:
- BU Directed Reading Program (DRP): Opportunity for students of diverse backgrounds to do some interesting extracurricular mathematics in a 1-on-1 environment with a graduate student mentor.
- EDGE Summer Session: Program for any woman whose goal is to attain a Ph.D. in the mathematical sciences. It is an intensive program for students who are applying to or have just completed their first year in a PhD program in the mathematical sciences.
- Smith College Center for Women in Mathematics Postbaccalaureate Program: If you are a woman who is strongly considering graduate school in the mathematical sciences but did not major in mathematics or your mathematics major was light, the postbaccalaureate program provides an opportunity to study mathematics intensively for two semesters at the advanced undergraduate level.
- BU uWISE (Undergraduate Women in Science and Engineering): Organization supporting women in STEM. See also the associated housing opportunities WISE-UP for female students (sophomores, juniors, and seniors) who are declared majors in STEM and WISE@Warren for incoming first-year undergraduates who intend to pursue studies in STEM.
- BU MAA, BU AWM, and BUCASA: BU Student Chapters of the Mathematical Association of America, the Association for Women in Mathematics, and the American Statistical Association.
- AMS Student Chapter: BU student chapter of the AMS, organized and run by graduate students. Some events organized by this group may be of interest to undergraduates.
- Departmental travel funding: Information for undergraduate mathematics and statistics majors on how to apply for funding to attend conferences and workshops.
- Student Memberships: Undergraduate math and statistics majors can become student members of many of the national organizations listed above. Students who are members of the BU Student Chapters of the MAA and AWM can obtain free membership in those organizations. The department also has some limited funds to provide student memberships to NAM, ASA, and SIAM. Please contact your advisor if you are interested in becoming a student member of any of these organizations.
- Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs): REUs are a great way to experience research in mathematics as an undergraduate. Typically, these take place during the summer at universities across the US and include both housing and a stipend. (Although sometimes funding is restricted to US citizens and permanent residents.) Check out the NSF REU listings and the AMS REU listings.
- BU Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP): Program that connects BU students and faculty members for research opportunities.
- STATtr@k: Website produced by the ASA for individuals who are in a statistics program, recently graduated from a statistics program, or who recently entered the job world.
Programs and Opportunities for Graduate Students:
- BU Directed Reading Program (DRP): Opportunity to mentor undergraduates of diverse backgrounds to do some interesting extracurricular mathematics in a 1-on-1 environment.
- BU GWISE: Organization supporting graduate women in STEM.
- BU Underrepresented Graduate Students Organization (BU UGSO): Organization supporting graduate students from underrepresented groups. See also their Survival Guide.
- Student Memberships: Graduate students in our department can obtain free membership to the AMS, AWM, and SIAM, as well as discounted membership to other organizations, including the ASA. Students wishing to become members of these, or any other professional organizations, should contact their MA/PhD advisor of their Director of Graduate Studies for more information. Limited departmental funding may be available to support such memberships.
- MSRI Summer Graduate Schools: Opportunity to learn about research-level mathematics that is not typically covered in regular graduate courses from faculty members working in the area.
- Travel funding for conferences and workshops: Although some conferences and workshops provide funding for their attendees, this is often not the case. There are several other ways to obtain funding for this purpose: ask your advisor if they have a grant that could fund you; apply for a departmental travel grant; apply for funding from national organizations, for example via the AMS Graduate Student Travel Grants or the SIAM Student Travel Awards.
- AMS Student Chapter: BU student chapter of the AMS, organized and run by graduate students.
- STATtr@k: A website produced by the ASA for individuals who are in a statistics program, recently graduated from a statistics program, or who recently entered the job world.
Additional Resources:
- Resources for Anti-Racism and Social Justice in the Mathematical Sciences from The Aperiodical, a ” meeting-place for people who already know they like maths and would like to know more.”
- Inclusion/exclusion blog from the AMS, which discusses various issues related to representation and social justice in mathematics.
- Data for Black Lives: A “movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people.”
- Resources for underrepresented faculty and students from the MAA.
- “Rehumanizing Mathematics for Black Indigenous, and Latinx Students” by Rochelle Gutierrez. “In this chapter, I provide an argument for why we should stop using equity as a goal and, instead, move toward rehumanizing mathematics. I provide 8 dimensions we should consider when rehumanizing mathematics teaching and learning.”
- “Weapons of Math Destruction“ by Cathy O’Neil. A book on “How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy.”
- “Mathematicians urge colleagues to boycott police work in wake of killings,” an article published in Nature.
- Academics for Black Survival and Wellness: “Academics for Black Survival and Wellness was organized by a group of Black counseling psychologists and their colleagues who practice Black allyship. Guided by a Black feminist frame, we hope to foster accountability and growth for non-Black people and enhance healing and wellness for Black people.”
- BU ARROWS: Advance, Recruit, Retain, and Organize women in STEM.
- BU Office of Diversity and Inclusion: The Office of Diversity & Inclusion leads the University’s efforts to advance a culture that values and supports diversity, equity, access, and inclusion across our campuses.