Jennifer Donovan, M.S; M.Ed; PhD, is an Arizona State University (ASU) Senior Lecturer for the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the ASU New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. Jennifer was looking for a virtual learning experience project for her students that would further advance the charter of ASU and its goals to include inclusivity. This was a unique challenge as her students were from multiple countries across the world. Thus, she needed a project that was both meaningful and enhanced their global learning experience.
iSAW, international Strategic Accelerator for Women, is an organization with a mission to make a dramatic impact for women in the workplace. The World Economic Forum, predicts it will take an average of 135 years to achieve gender equality globally. iSAW seeks to change these predictions by harnessing the power of next-generation technology and unique content shared globally through the iSAW LIFT (Learning and Intelligence For Tomorrow) platform to create an innovative learning and intelligence habitat for women and allies to collaborate and hone their professional and technical skills contribute to narrowing the gender equality gap globally.
Senior Lecturer Jennifer Donovan and Nancy Speidel, iSAW Founder and CEO, brought their initiatives together creating an impactful ASU and iSAW collaboration. The collaboration couldn’t have been timelier given the devastating impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on working women and the new virtual learning experience for students.
The students project was to curate meaningful content for the iSAW GRID (Gender Research Insight Database). The students were assigned different topics and/or global regions. The topics ranged from women in STEM, leadership and other relevant topics. In addition to the GRID research, each student produced an infographic and short video on the learning that was most meaningful to them, sharing in their own words the value women bring and the challenges faced in the workplace. The experience benefited both female and male students raising their awareness, empowering them and demonstrating what ‘good looks like’ before they enter the workplace. The students have the possibility of being published and contributors themselves within the iSAW LIFT platform.
The project is a WIN/WIN/WIN for the students, professor and iSAW, as noted:
“I didn’t realize when I started the semester that I’d be participating in such a meaningful project! You inspired me to do what I can throughout my career to make sure women are being represented and noticed.” –Michael Turley, Arizona State University
“An Interesting/insightful project for an impactful company” – Emily Johnson
“My students come from multiple disciplines and countries; the topic of gender equality for women in the workplace is relevant for every student, both female and male. It was a well-organized project, with a meaningful learning experience the students will carry with them into the future.” – Jennifer Donovan, ASU Senior Lecturer
“iSAW is excited to partner with Senior Lecturer Donovan and ASU students to research and curate unique iSAW Sharp content to address gender in-equality on a global scale. The experience for the student is personal, it raises their own awareness and understanding of the issues women face in the workplace and in turn that information is shared across the world converted into over 30 languages using advanced digital technology to create transformational leap learning to help expedite equality worldwide.” – Nancy Speidel, iSAW Founder and CEO.
The top student contributors were recognized with iSAW Impact Award certificates, and the top 4 students received commemorative coins recognizing their contribution to the advancement of gender equity.
Due to the success of the program and the positive virtual online learning experience for the students along with the global impact on advancing gender equality, ASU and iSAW will be partnering every semester, with roughly 250 students working on relevant and related projects.
To learn more about ASU online visit www.asuonline.asu.edu
To learn more about iSAW visit www.iSAW.org
