Science Outreach
Why participate in science outreach?
I consider myself lucky that I have the opportunity to study the intricacies of our natural world everyday, and I want to be able to share that love with others and, possibly, convince someone, child or adult, to obtain a deeper understanding of our world. Please read a little bit more about what I do below.
UCLA's Exploring Your Universe
Exploring Your Universe is a yearly science outreach event aimed at children and families. Students, postdocs, professors, and staff from several departments at UCLA make demonstrations which engage kids and adults with the research scientists perform. I have volunteered in the Mineral, Rock, and Fossil room for four years! Here, people have the chance to learn about and touch minerals, rocks, and fossils, ask graduate and undergraduate students in EPSS about our science, and play in the augmented reality sandbox (which I have run for EYU the last four years). Here are articles that discuss the sandbox and EPSS's involvement in EYU in fall 2016 (pages 4-5 and page 9, respectively). I am on the organizing board of EYU this year. Here are the website and Twitter accounts. Here is a press release by the university regarding the 2020 virtual event.
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La Brea Tar Pits
The La Brea Tar Pits is a public museum in Los Angeles that researches and educates the public about Pleistocene ecology and geology. I volunteered weekly from May 2019 until the start of the pandemic as a floor interpreter where I usually discussed ice age life and environment to visitors.
2017 Solar Eclipse Trip
In August 2017, I had the oppurtunity to travel with Professors Jean Luc Margot and Seulgi Moon along with ~30 alumni to Washington State as a graduate student assistant to explore the local geology and observe the solar eclipse. It was a truly amazing experience. Please read this article (page 14) to learn more about the trip.
Project Scientist
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In November 2019, Project Scientist, an organization whose mission is to encourage girls' interest in STEM fields, visited campus. For this visit, I organized a rock room for ~40 students. We discussed topography and contour lines using the augmented reality sandbox and learned about minerals and rocks.
UCLA SWG
From May 2020 until May 2021, I was the Outreach Coordinator for UCLA's SWG. While we could not have in-person events due to the pandemic, I organized virtual visits to LA public elementary schools, organized a "Project Scientist" screening and facilitated a discussion of film, organized a "buddy" program for earlier and later career graduate students in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies and Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences Departments. Slightly outside of my duties associated with this position, I also attended a training on facilitating conversations related to gender harassment and facilitated a conversation through UCLA’s Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences, workshops on advocating for undocumented students through UCLA’s Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Immigration Policy, preventing harassment in field sciences through the UC Fieldwork Toolkit Leadership Training Series, and advocating for myself and other women+ through a program UCLA Graduate Women in Computer Science (gWiCS), and a multi-day workshop on STEM diversity, science communication, and science policy through Reclaiming STEM.
Department Involvement
EPSSSO
EPSSSO is the student organization in the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences. The goal of the organization is to both advocate for students within the department and to plan social activities for the department. I served a vice president of student affairs during my first two years of graduate school and as co-president during the 2018-2019 school year. As an advocate for students, I have served as the graduate student representative on the EPSS graduate student affairs committee for 1 year and the EPSS curriculum committee for 2 years. I helped plan the yearly new graduate student camping trip for 3 years, which introduces new graduate students to current graduate students in EPSS in various beautiful California locations including Bear Bear, Joshua Tree National Park, and Lake Isabella. I also help plan ~4 department-wide celebrations each year and have been the lead organizer for a yearly graduate school panel for UCLA undergraduates interested in applying to graduate school in earth sciences, planetary sciences, and space sciences for four years. In addition, I helped plan a two yearly student symposiums (academic years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018) that bring geology students from several schools around the Los Angeles Basin together for a day of research talks.
