Assessing and Promoting Intersectional Approaches Among the Ashoka Fellows in Romania
Our Project
The Ashoka Fellowship in Romania includes six Fellows who lead non-governmental organizations(NGOs) addressing social issues in Romania. This project explored methods for implementing collaborative approaches focused on intersectionality, or the overlap of social identities, among the Fellows and reviewed intersectionality and best practices for collaboration. Surveys of the Fellows and stakeholders within the NGO’s indicated that most Fellows have a basic understanding of intersectionality, and that overlapping social identities exist amongst the communities. These findings formed the basis for a guide Ashoka Romania can use to conduct a focus group with the Fellows and a design for a webpage to aid the Ashoka Fellowship in bolstering collaboration focused on intersectionality.
What is an iqp
The Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) is part of the Worcester Polytechnic Institutes (WPI) project-based curriculum. This nine-credit-hour course allows students to work in teams of students not in their major to address a problem that involves the intersection of science, technology, engineering, and society.
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The students complete a 7-week long preparation course before traveling to the country of their project center for another 7-weeks (due to covid-19, this project was completed remotely). Over the 14-week period, students learn real-world problem-solving techniques while working closely with faculty advisors and collaborators from the project site.