From Courses to Careers: Impact of workshop design on students’ professional development

Recently, there have been many efforts to broaden participation in STEM to empower a diverse and knowledgeable workforce, which has been reflected in the 2022-2026 National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Strategic Plan. As a part of these goals, efforts to create a more inclusive, accommodating, and accessible community are crucial for supporting disabled students, who make up 20% of undergraduate science & engineering students. The Courses 2 Careers (C2C) project aims to improve accessibility and inclusion in physics through a week-long workshop that facilitates mutually beneficial partnerships between disabled post-secondary physics students and faculty across multiple institutions. Throughout the development of the workshop, student members have been an active part of the design team, including working on activities for the workshop, serving on panels at conferences, co-facilitating the workshop, and writing a series of articles for the Just Physics? column of The Physics Teacher. By participating in this work, student design team members have gained valuable professional skills, which they have then translated into the professional development component of the C2C workshop. This contribution highlights the benefits of the collaboration between students and faculty as a part of the design and delivery of the workshop.