University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education Alumni Association

UB GSE PhD student Raven Baxter made news once again this month when she debuted on Fortune magazine’s annual 40 under 40 list: fortune.com/40-under-40/2020/r...aven-baxter. The story and a companion video highlight her unique approach and her career ambition: Showcasing STEM fields and the diversity within them with intent to encourage more people of color to forge their careers in related disciplines. She got national attention for her work earlier this year when her rap video COVID-19 lesson Wipe It Down went viral. Now she has an album of science rap songsThe Protocolcelebrating diversity in STEM. The Fortune story describes her background and her beginningsfrom space camp to work as a microbiologist for a research company. Her discouragement at being the only Black person in her office led her to UB’s GSE to work on her doctorate in science education. She’s since dedicated herself to, as the Fortune puts it, developing a next generation of talent that looked more like her and the rest of the country. Read more at ed.buffalo.edu/news-brief.

As a university community, we all play a role in keeping #UBuffalo healthy and safe. Together, we are protecting each other. Together, we are stopping the spre...ad. Together, we are #UBuffaloStrong Read our UB Health and Safety Guidelines: bit.ly/2Wke6Ah

Planning to catch up or get a head start in your coursework? Summer sessions start today! The drop/add deadline for a 10-week class is Saturday, May 30. Soak up the knowledge. #summerschool #ubthissummer ubthissummer.buffalo.edu

Soon after the pandemic shutdown started, #UBGSE PhD student Raven Baxter (Raven the Science Maven) made a video about fighting the virus. It went viral: statio...ns from New York to Hawaii broadcasted Wipe It Down. Then, her remix of Lil Boosie’s Wipe Me Down landed in Mayor Byron Brown’s office and led to an invitation. This week she joined his new #BuffaloPAUSE initiative to persuade teens to stay home and safe. Ahead, Baxter will announce a new science contest each week. Teens should follow her @RavenTheScienceMaven and make videos of themselves explaining an experiment for a chance to win an Amazon gift card. She explained this week’s by Instagram Live Monday: Show how keeping clean can fight the virus by using dish soap to clear pepper from water. The real challenge is communicating the science behind it, said Baxter, 26, a #UBuffalo curriculum, instruction and the science of learning PhD student with a concentration in #science #education. She now teaches chemistry and directs the college #STEM program at the Health Sciences Charter School in Buffalo. She is aiming for a career in science communication. The pandemic, and the project with the mayor’s office, are education opportunities that she hopes will lead to new awareness. The reality is we really should be thinking about science every day, she said. Read more: https://bit.ly/35KBgU9

#UBuffalo will be planning for every eventualityfrom a distance education model to a residential, campus-based experience in a less dense and safe environment, to a potential full return to conventional campus operations. #UBuffaloStrong

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced U.S. higher education to reinvent itself on the fly. Join the Higher Education program on Monday, April 13 from 12 PM to 1 PM ...for a panel discussion which will consider how higher education has responded to the crisis, and how the pandemic may change higher education in both the short- and long-term. Panelists include Dr. Suzanne Rosenblith, Dean of the Graduate School of Education; Barbara Ricotta, Dean of Students; and Jay Roorbach (HED EdM '19), Senior Emergency Planning Coordinator. Monday, April 13 12 PM to 1 PM Join Zoom Meeting https://buffalo.zoom.us/j/401320213 Meeting ID: 401 320 213

| Going Viral with Virus Safety | Raven Baxter, a.k.a. Raven the Science Maven, is a 26-year-old UB GSE PhD science education student who took on the coronavirus and went viral herself. Her rap music video Wipe it Down about keeping clean and keeping safe went on YouTube last week, got her a story on local Spectrum News and CNN’s must-watch list. From there her video went up on news stations from New York City to Hawaii. This week a new story debuts on the local WIVB-T...V Channel 4. She also gave Fox News and ABC permission to distribute. It’s scary having all those people looking at me, but I guess I kind of asked for it when I put that video out there, said Baxter with a laugh. She wrote the words in about an hour, made the video on her phone and remixed the music to the beat of another popular rap, Wipe Me Down by Lil Boosie. Her take: Wash your body, wash your hair and wash your hands, too. Get some soap, scrub it down and show me how you do it. A day later it was online: http://youtu.be/OvMrNfK9fF4. The point: Empower folks with humor, science information and a healthy to-do. She now counts her Instagram, Facebook and Twitter followers by the thousands. This includes her current favorite, the world’s most powerful x-ray telescope NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Baxter, who researched the effects of media representation on black women in science for her dissertation, has more science music on the way. She’s recording an album and aims to release Protocol in May. It’s going to be the new protocol for people like me who want to be their unapologetic selves in science, said Baxter. #UBGSE #UBuffalo #WomenInSTEM #QuarantineLife #WipeItDown @lysol @clorox @foxnews @BrandonNewsTV @ravenscimaven

In times of great challenge, UB demonstrates great resilience, and great character. Please take a moment to hear #UBuffalo President Satish K. Tripathi’s message of pride and hope. For the latest updates and FAQs, please visit https://bitly.com/2UmJ3lK

We know this evolving situation is bringing unforeseen challenges. Stay strong, #UBuffalo Read President Tripathi's message on how our UB community can work together in support of our mission: http://bitly.com/3ddPvUu

[UPDATED 3/19 2:30 PM] We know these are difficult and uncertain times, and we are getting many questions about what you should do. Here is additional guidance...: Stay home for the remainder of the semester if you are able to do so. If you are currently in university housing, we recommend you return home if you are able to do so. International students, students who don’t have other housing options, and students with limited access to technology may stay in university housing If you are staying home, please DO NOT return to pick up your belongings. Your belongings will be secured. UB will contact you in the future regarding alternative arrangements to get your belongings. There some additional information that will help inform your decision on https://www.buffalo.edu/coronavirus including: What steps to take in order to leave campus housing Information on prorated credits for room and board for UB students (including: residence hall/housing and dining/meal expenses) [UPDATE] Answers to many of your questions about refunds, credits, key returns, notification on access to collect your belongings, and more have been added see the FAQs: https://www.buffalo.edu/campusliving/covid-19.html

GSE master’s student Kang Kerubino Guot, one of the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan,’ will speak about his journey from civil war refugee to educator at 7 p.m. this Thursda...y, in 109 O’Brian Hall on UB North Campus. He discovered the power of education in a Kenyan camp. There, he could see educated people had more opportunity, including the best of the relief supplies. The lesson: If he studied hard, he could change his life. Now he’s training to be a teacher and help others. Going to school is very important because it helps you to liberate yourself, said Guot in a WNED documentary about his life here. Watch at http://bit.ly/guot-wned. Come listen in person Thursday. #LostBoysOfSudan #education #KakumaRefugeeCamp #UBGSE #UBuffalo

#SceneOnCampus Welcome back Buffalo winter: Just leftover, annoying, freezing drizzle. That’s today’s version of the motley season from Jim Mitchell, a Nation...al Weather Service meteorologist at the airport. Next up: A few more inches tonight and in the morning with the storm leaving a final inch tomorrow night. The mild winter temperatures and snow fall at 45 inches, or 20 inches below the 65-inch February norm makes forecasting tricky. Mixed precipitation is one of the most difficult things, he said. It’s very difficult to predict who is going to get ice and who is going to get sleet. It only takes a degree or two to change everything. Tread carefully on roads and sidewalks. What’s your preferred February forecast? @nwsbuffalo #ubgse #winter See more

Sail to the Galapagos, measure ocean plastic and improve science teaching: A professor’s passion for the outdoors, adventure and new classroom approaches led to... a quest and sail on a 73-foot boat with an all-women crew. It was the start of Alexandra Schindel’s sabbatical semester and her 2020. Schindel, a GSE associate professor of science education, set sail from Panama for the Galapagos and a unique women-only journey to collect data on plastic pollution. Follow her on Instagram at alexaxela.s, exxpedition.com and our GSE feature page. She is one of nine volunteers she dubbed Plastics Ambassadors on an all-women sailboat crew. Together they will finish one leg of the V.S. TravelEdge’s two-year, round-the-world sail to study the impact of plastic. Ahead: Three more days on the water before they dock in the Galapagos. My heart gets filled up being on the water, said Schindel as she prepared to fly to Panama and board with her waterproof dry bag. #PlasticsAmbassadors #exxpedition #OceanOptimism #UBuffalo #UBGSE http://bit.ly/schindel-exxpedition