Teaching is one of my passions. It's thrilling to see students finally understand a concept or apply new knowledge to their lives. While good teachers make teaching seem natural, it doesn't come that simply to most of us. While I am a graduate student, I am seeking out opportunities to learn educational theory and practice my teaching craft.
I am involved with the TILT center's Graduate Teaching Certificate. Through this certificate program, I attend workshops, complete teaching hours, and make a teaching portfolio. I see this program as a starting point for a lifetime of teaching.
Mentoring is a key part of scientific development. Because of wonderful mentors who saw potential in me and were willing to work with and encourage me, I am now in graduate school, pursuing a PhD. Without the help of many mentors, the work of graduate school would not be possible! Mentoring is especially crucial for women and minorities in science, because the road going forward is going to be even harder. Because mentoring is important for the development for all scientists, and especially critical for fostering diversity and inclusivity in science, I have become involved in mentoring undergraduates and in developing training for mentors.
I was selected as an Research Mentoring to Advance Inclusivity in STEM (RMAIS) Fellow for both 2018 and 2019. RMAIS is a program through the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology and the Women and Gender Collaborative at Colorado State University that seeks to advance inclusivity and diversity in ecology through developing mentoring training materials and presenting them at a summer seminar series. I have developed a module on implicit bias in mentoring and I am working on a module on critical thinking and the scientific method.