South SFV Today

Stanford University honored several community members and programs for their contributions to enhancing and supporting diversity within the campus community with the 2024 President’s Awards for Excellence Through Diversity.

This year’s recipients include:

- Polly Fordyce, an associate professor of bioengineering and genetics, and a Sarafan ChEM-H Institute Scholar.

- Tilly Griffiths, a Master of Arts student in communication, and Ria Calcagno, a co-term Master of Computer Science student (shared award).

- The Science Accelerating Girls’ Engagement (SAGE) Journey Program.

The award, established in 2009, is conferred annually to a campus unit, a faculty or staff member, and a student or student organization. President Richard Saller presented the awards during a ceremony on Wednesday.

Graduate School of Business student Trey Xavier Dodson III and the School of Medicine’s Staff Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Collective Program also received honorable mentions for their work. Citations honoring Calcagno, Fordyce, Griffiths, and SAGE are posted on the website of the Office of Faculty Development, Diversity, and Engagement.

Ria Calcagno graduates this year with a BA in political science from the School of Humanities and Sciences while pursuing a master’s degree in computer science from the School of Engineering. As co-president and later president of Stanford Disability Alliance (SDA), Calcagno built SDA into an advocacy hub for the disabled community at Stanford. She also served as co-chair of the Disability Access and Barriers Study Group. Her efforts led to various initiatives including creating an assistant vice provost for accessible education role.

“Her resilience... have left an indelible mark on campus life,” her award citation reads. “...Her contributions have not only enriched the Stanford community but have also advanced our collective commitment to creating a more inclusive... campus environment.”

Tilly Griffiths will graduate this year with a master’s degree in data journalism. Through her leadership as director of Disability Advocacy for the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU), resources were secured to pilot the Disability Community Space (DisCo). Griffiths highlighted issues facing the disabled community through her work writing for The Stanford Daily as an undergraduate.

“By being disabled... Tilly shows other disabled students it can be done,” Griffiths’ citation reads. “Other disabled students will come to Stanford... because of Tilly – and Stanford will be all the better for this diversity.”

Polly Fordyce launched her independent lab at Stanford in 2014 and became director of Bio-X Molecular Foundry shortly thereafter. In 2020, she co-founded the Next Generation Faculty Symposium with professors Aaron Streets from UC Berkeley and Jason Sello from UCSF to highlight early career scientists committed to diversity in STEM fields.

Fordyce has taught BIOE 301D since 2015—a hands-on course where teams develop devices responding to real-world needs pitched by clinical labs on campus. During pandemic-related shutdowns across campus labs, Fordyce led efforts to collect PPE for frontline workers at San Mateo County Hospital.

The SAGE Journey Program aims to broaden gender diversity in STEM through week-long camps encouraging high school girls to explore STEM careers via hands-on experiments at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Stanford University. The program supports intersectional recruitment focusing on students without prior exposure or access to STEM activities.

“SAGE students can see what a day in... looks like,” according to SAGE’s citation. “They also have... opportunity to see that scientists... come from various backgrounds.” Over seven years, 333 high school girls attended SLAC SAGE Camp; last year alone saw alumni awarded 46 internships across DOE National Laboratories.