The Access Assembly: Sharing Ideas and Enabling Informed Adaptations

Founded in 2014, the Access Network brings together nine student-centered, university-based programs that are pursuing systemic change towards a vision of a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible STEM community. Leaders at the Network-level and program-level are either current students (undergraduate or graduate) or young faculty and professional scientists, many of whom started out as student leaders in Access programs. Over the last 9 years, Access has brought people together (virtually or in-person) for an annual event called the "Assembly." In addition to supporting community and networking, the environment and structures at the Assembly enable the sharing of ideas, excite people to translate those ideas to their local programs, and create space for informed and deliberate adaptations. Drawing on post-Assembly survey data, we see that participants from various institutional positionalities report benefiting and/or learning from their experiences at the Assembly and having confidence to adapt these ideas to their local contexts. We briefly describe where ideas come from, where attendees are intending to apply them, and how session foci shape the ideas that gain traction with attendees.