Northwestern Emerging Scholars Program (NESP)

The Northwestern Emerging Scholars Program (NESP) is focused on building a community of practice and increasing the inclusion of students from underrepresented minorities, women, and first-generation students in the Northwestern mathematics program. On the week-to-week level this is accomplished through collaborative, nonjudgmental, active learning problem sessions (6-8 meetings per quarter offered), where undergraduate students explore advanced mathematical concepts rarely encountered in their first two years of coursework. Additionally, we program a variety of social events, including teas, dinners, and an end-of-year banquet with invited speaker, where current and former NESP participants can strengthen and expand connections with students (both undergraduate and graduate) and faculty. Lastly, the leadership of NESP represents a broad vertical cross section of the Department of Mathematics, including third- and fourth-year undergraduate peer leaders, graduate students, postdocs, and permanent faculty. This gives NESP participants a powerful opportunity to establish mentoring relationships at multiple levels in our mathematics community. These three components of NESP (problem sessions, social events, mentoring and advocacy) will help build a strong and diverse community of mathematics students, and this will in turn strengthen our mathematics program by making it more inviting to students from historically underrepresented groups.