As a first-generation college student coming from a community college, I had very little exposure to science careers in high school and early college. I am indebted to a handful of key mentors during college, who heavily influenced my career trajectory. I take great appreciation and gratitude in extending that mentorship and inclusivity to the next generation of scientists.
Science education & outreach at Kellogg Biological Station
I was a Science Education and Outreach Fellow at KBS from 2020-2022, where I worked to integrate field-based experiences into K-12 classrooms and provide meaningful resources for online learning during the core of the Covid-19 pandemic. As an outreach team, we provided a variety of programs to K-12 classrooms and other audiences through KBS. Here are some of the programs I most recently worked on:
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Exploring with Scientists - This program connects scientists with an organismal focus on K-12 classrooms to share career experiences and what it is like to be a scientist. My program is on herpetology (amphibians and reptiles). I talk about careers in science, frogs, and what it is like to work in the field and lab to answer the question, "how do some frogs avoid extinction"?
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Biodiversity After-school Enrichment Program- We developed an after-school enrichment program for middle schools in Kalamazoo, MI focused on biodiversity careers and science for the 2020-2022 school years. Each week covers an organismal theme, biodiversity principles, and meetings with scientists who have those jobs.
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Banner photo: From an 'Expert is in' outreach event at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Photo credit: James Di Loreto
