WIDE Student Fellows Expand Their Understanding of DEI

“WIDE really pushes you to think critically about what DEI is,” says Shruthisri “Sri” Ravisankar ’25, a fall 2023 Workplace Inclusion and Diversity Education student fellow. 

Launched in spring 2022, the student fellowship program is a partnership between the ILR Credit Internship Program and ILR WIDE. Students who have completed Cornell’s introductory Intergroup Dialogue Course, which is one option for fulfilling ILR’s new DEI requirement, can participate in credit internships related to workplace diversity and inclusion. 

Students are advised by Stephen Kim, the assistant director of ILR WIDE, and complete an additional course on workplace DEI, “Workplace Inclusion: Theory and Practice,” during their internship semester. Samira Islam ’25, an intern at the Michigan Employment Clinic, and Bill Wang ’25, an intern at Miller Shah LLP, were spring 2024 WIDE fellows.

Angelo Del Toro ‘24, a fall 2023 fellow, interned at Co-x3 Family Foundation, a non-profit where he did software and tech development. 

The most important part of his experience as a WIDE fellow, Del Toro says, was how it helped him discover his passion for DEI. “It made me feel like I had found my place within professional development on campus.”

Ravisankar interned at Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement and was a teaching assistant for the India Global Service Learning Program. As an intern, Ravisankar assisted in learning and development initiatives and as a teaching assistant, she was responsible for the cohort of students going to India. Her core takeaway from WIDE was that it taught her to think more productively about what DEI is doing for workplace development while also leaving space to recognize the personal impact it has on her. 

Through the ILR WIDE course, fellows unpack theoretical and scholarly readings around workplace inclusion. They also focus on workplace application of DEI skills and frameworks from intergroup dialogue and other ILR courses. Through WIDE coursework, Ravinsankar learned about ways DEI impacts an organization, not only in the diverse inclusive culture but also in areas such as performance evaluation, employee satisfaction, retention and talent management. Ultimately, WIDE connects the theory part of DEI with the practice, Ravisankar says. 

Ravisankar points out how often when we think about DEI, we think about diversity and inclusion in an interconnected way. WIDE pushes you, she said, to look at diversity and inclusion separately as achieving diversity does not necessarily mean it will lead to inclusion. 

It also pushes you to think about the nuances of diversity and inclusion and how the two are connected to social identity, power, privilege and oppression, Ravisankar said. “As you start thinking about how this all plays out, you work toward the overarching question of how we can really work on ourselves as individuals and also pour ourselves into workplace communities to make change."