By Kati Khov, Undergraduate Library Making Fellow, 2024-2025
During our Fall program evaluation meeting, my cohort and I reviewed Makerspace highlights and opportunities for growth. We reflected on our accomplishments by discussing our strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and what results we can predict. One thing we noticed was that these quotes are often said by visiting students:
“I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this place before!”
“Wow, I’ve been here since I was a freshman and never utilized these great resources!”
A common theme emerges. The Makerspace needs to increase and innovate its current outreach methods to catch the eyes of more undergraduates. Serving as a resource hub with a generous amount of creative supplies and tools, students deserve to know they have opportunities to utilize the Makerspace right at their fingertips.
Aside from the physical perks of having access to the Makerspace, the inclusive community in the Makerspace serves as an example of enhancing students’ quality of life, particularly for vulnerable populations such as LGBTQIA+ individuals.
As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I can attest that being in a creative space where I can find like-minded people makes me feel welcome. When our cohort and an additional four people are cramped together in the Fiber Arts room, loudly chatting and laughing, it’s so rewarding when our conversations entice other participants to chime in and form connections. There’s something so special and intimate about having a shared space built on a supportive and inclusive foundation. You don’t need to be a crafting expert or pay for materials and tools to use the Makerspace. In the same vein, you don’t need to fit into a specific mold around your identity and self-expression to belong here. The Makerspace allows everyone to express themselves in ways beyond creative methods.
Not to mention, arts and crafts has also played a lasting impact in queer culture. The Makerspace supplies crafts like buttons and zines, which have historically been used by queer folks to identify one another, advocate, and share their life experiences.
As reflected in the City of Berkeley’s recently published Community Health Assessment (CHA), a project I was fortunate to provide input on, LGBTQIA+ safety was noted as a high priority:
“Young people who identify as LGBTQIA+ experience higher rates of attempted suicide, depression, and anxiety. There are very few programs that provide mental health services to this demographic” (Jon Snow Inc., 29).
With the current gap in mental health services for young LGBTQIA+ individuals, the Makerspace has become an ad hoc community space to bridge the lack of resources. It is abundantly clear that increasing its outreach is necessary.
Previous 2021-2022 Makerspace fellows, Maura Adela Cruz, Chloe Chu, Alysa Liu, and Christina Park, also worked on a similar project to increase outreach for the Makerspace. From what I gathered from their blog posts, there was a focus on increasing outreach specifically for non-traditional students. Their research and outreach approach served as a great inspiration for my pitch to develop a qualitative research project.
Although I had come prepared with a detailed outline and timeline, flyers, and digital and physical survey formats for both focus groups and surveys, I may have overestimated the feasibility of conducting this study. And that’s okay! I’ve learned that showing intent and passion demonstrates a strong commitment and initiation for the project, and there’s always the option to scale back if necessary. With my mentor and cohort’s feedback, I narrowed the study’s scope to focus on one survey dedicated to assessing the discoverability of the Makerspace for undergraduate students.
The survey was separated into two sections to discuss specific themes around participants’ choice of communities and increasing outreach. I first asked students to identify any clubs or organizations they belonged to in a short answer summary, then followed up with a multiple-choice selection to ask if these communities had physical venues and what makes them appealing to visit in person. Participants were able to select multiple of the following:
- Close to where I frequently visit (home, school, work, third spaces, etc)
- I can easily find relevant and updated information
- I enjoy the outcome of each event. I learn something new and/or can bring something back home, such as food or supplies.
- There is a strong sense of community. I can make new connections through these communities.
- They can accommodate my needs and/or their venues are accessible.
- They offer a wide range of services and resources.
- They offer a wide availability of hours. I can drop in at this location and/or the events have long run times during hours I can attend.
The next section determined where and how students discovered events and resources, including the Makerspace. Lastly, the survey included a section for students to share their thoughts in greater detail.
In just two weeks, we reached our goal of 30 respondents. We had a lot of input to comb through for our analysis! I was surprised by how consistent our data was right off the bat. I expected to need more time to create conclusions, but many shared similar sentiments about their preferred community spaces and forms of outreach:
- Students expressed a desire for longer drop-in service hours, but deeper analysis concludes this may not be a primary solution
- Students suggest that online outreach methods, such as newsletters and social media, drive discoverability
- Community impact goes a long way in sustaining students’ well-being
Now, for those reading with a background in data science, you might identify some of the gaps in how I structured the survey. I should have 1) avoided using a short answer format to collect data on students’ spaces of belonging and 2) avoided multiple choice selections. While I was moved by how thoughtful people’s short answer responses were, it was harder to categorize people’s answers when moving into the data analysis portion. This demonstrated an important lesson about how survey structures should account for how you plan to interpret your data. A decision as simple as using multiple-choice selections can create complexities when generating pivot tables accessible to a broader audience.
My lived experiences shaped how I wanted to analyze the effectiveness of certain outreach methods to support community resources. The goal of this project was not to specifically target a single demographic, but to identify opportunities for growth regarding outreach methods relative to the needs and attitudes of people across different identities and spaces they belong to.
When I presented my project to my mentor and cohort at the end of the semester, it was important to emphasize that the Makerspace has an underlying responsibility to fill in resource gaps for Berkeley’s youth population. As many of us are also LGBTQIA+-identifying, our history demonstrates the need for advocacy to make change. As the present calls for us to advocate once more, we must strive to ensure resources are accessible for everyone.
I want to acknowledge and express my gratitude to my mentor and cohort, resources such as D-Lab, and friends who participated in the survey and provided advice on the project. As I will be graduating this semester, I hope this project invites future fellows to consider self-initiating their own projects to work on alongside their fellowship. I went from having little experience with data analysis to suddenly learning about different programs and research methods! To those interested in working with the Makerspace and for those who just want to visit, this is my advice: when provided with an opportunity to explore something you’ve always wanted to, take it and never stop learning.