SESP professor Mesmin Destin was appointed faculty director of student access and enrichment Sept. 1, according to a Friday news release. Destin will bring leverage to Student Enrichment Services and First-Generation-Lower-Income programs across campus to enhance engagement with first-generation and lower-income students.
Over 15 years, Destin’s research has explored students’ formative access to resources and opportunities, specifically investigating whether environments and experiences influence people’s lives by expanding their identities. He has long been fascinated by forces that can influence the lives and futures of young people, Northwestern Now said in the news release.
“As Northwestern’s student body diversifies across multiple dimensions, it is critical that the institution grows in ways that authentically embrace students’ backgrounds, perspectives and goals,” Destin said in the news release.
Destin is the co-director of the SESP Leadership Institute, a program geared toward FGLI students that helps first-years, sophomores and transfers build strengths within their personal communities to support success and well-being.
NU Provost Kathleen Hagerty said the Office of the Provost is eager to collaborate with Student Affairs to extend more support for students of FGLI backgrounds.
“Mesmin Destin has the academic insights and leadership skills to position Northwestern for even greater success for all of its undergraduate students,” Hagerty said.
In 2019, Destin received the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution and Northwestern’s Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence Award. The next year, he was presented with the International Society for Self and Identity Outstanding Early Career Award. Destin was named a Guggenheim fellow in 2021 and now serves as a fellow at NU’s Institute for Policy Research.
Destin shared his research on how individuals are a product of their environment in a 2022 TEDX Talk, titled “How everyday interactions shape your future.”
He said he plans to use this research in his new role.
“His focus furthers the collaboration between Student Affairs and the academic community, ensuring that research and scholarship continue to inform our practice and our practice informs research and scholarship,” vice president for Student Affairs Susan Davis said.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @HabashySam
Related Stories:
— Three Northwestern professors to present at TEDxChicago
— Socioeconomic diversity affects academic confidence in low-income students, Northwestern study says
— Office of FGLI Initiatives hopes to uplift first-generation, low-income students
