2019--Why Sharing Your Testimony Matters


As the year 2019, comes to a close, I am reflecting on some important milestones for the year. I began 2019 with an interview in the journal Nature, where  I talked openly about moving forward after being denied tenure in academia. Believe me, I do not plan to give more interviews about this difficult experience, but I really believe we each have a responsibility to share parts of our testimony (journey) to help other people going through painful struggles or life experiences. Honestly, I simply wanted to share part of my journey to help someone else. I once read that it is fine to sometimes revisit the past, but you need to make sure you surround yourself with truly supportive friends and family, who will not allow you to live in the past. I am thankful.

I had the absolute honor of serving as a keynote speaker this year, where I shared my journey with the next generation of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) leaders at both the University of Detroit-Mercy for the ReBUILDetroit Lab Coat Ceremony and the Women in Chemistry Annual Retreat held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I shared with the audience that you don't have to tell all of your personal business to help somebody else. I merely shared part of my journey because sometimes people just want to know they are not the only ones going through a hard time. My advice to you is to stop hiding your testimony, which can help others.

In addition to sharing my chemistry journey this year, I have continued to remain connected to my discipline (inorganic chemistry), by publishing peer-reviewed papers focused on inclusive pedagogy. Specifically, this year we have focused on using Marvel Studios' Black Panther to engage students with Mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein and making their very own Vibranium solutions in the chemistry laboratory. I had the opportunity to share our approach to classroom teaching during the ChemEd 2019 Conference held at North Central College and the #InclusiveSciComm Symposium which was launched by the Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island. And I am tremendously thankful to the Metcalf Institute for the spotlight on our work. 

Finally, I began 2019 feeling very uncomfortable about sharing something so deeply personal and painful. However, my brief encounters of feeling uneasy quickly subsided based on the very thoughtful comments I received on social media and emails too. So, you know what this tells me? That I have shown growth in 2019 and I look forward to more growth and stretching myself in 2020. Happy New Year!

Sibrina
SibrinaSpeaks


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