Copyright Staten Island Advance
IN CLASS: This feature is part of an ongoing education column highlighting the various activities that engage school communities. Want this before everyone else? Subscribe to our Beyond the Classroom newsletter. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A College of Staten Island lecturer has received a prestigious award in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) for breaking barriers and fostering greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in the sciences. Sean Thatcher, lecturer at the college’s Department of Engineering and Environmental Science at the Willowbrook campus, is part of the team receiving the 2025 American Geophysical Union’s Award for Advancing Inclusive Excellence in STEM. The award recognizes the work of the GeoSPACE Field Program, where Thatcher serves as lead virtual instructor for the program based on the University of Florida’s campus in Gainesville. The GeoSPACE Field Program creates an immersive, hybridized two-week field course for undergraduate and graduate students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, to participate in hands-on research, mentoring, and field experiences in the geosciences. Thatcher is one of 10 team members in the program representing seven universities or organizations across the country. “Dr. Anita Marshall (Principal Investigator of GeoSPACE) asked if I would join a team being put together to create an accessible geological field course for students with and without disabilities,” he explained. “I immediately said yes because, as a quadriplegic, developing field-based learning skills, which would have allowed me, or others, to graduate, were incredibly limited at the time. Working with the team that is comprised of faculty with and without disabilities, we shared our life experiences and approaches to field work to create a course that was unavailable to us during our professional training, allowing more students access to field courses with varying abilities that were not present when we needed them most.” Thatcher’s involvement reflects his own dedication to fostering the next generation of scientists, while also shining a spotlight on the College of Staten Island’s commitment to providing students with innovative, equitable pathways into STEM fields. The GeoSPACE program has worked with about 65 students since its inception across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Applications for the program’s next cohort will be opening soon. Send us your stories Do you have a story idea for the In Class education column? Email education reporter Annalise Knudson at aknudson@siadvance.com.
