Representative mentorship and leadership have been critical to my own success in geosciences and, as a result, I am committed to fostering diversity in academic settings. Because of my background, diversity and empathy for the human experience are my core tenants. I have had a long-standing commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts from my undergraduate institution, Rice University, to UC-Merced, to Yale University. I have actively engaged in mentorship, community engagement, and active anti-racist engagement and I will continue to lead this essential work throughout my academic career. ## **Mentorship** - Mentor for Boosting Representation of African Americans in the Geosciences (BRAAG) - Through this summer program, students were recruited from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In the Summer of 2022, I mentored students in this program through a summer research program. I helped students formulate research questions, hypotheses, and present a poster at the end of the summer - Mentor for Summer bridge program - In Summer 2021, I served as a mentor to incoming graduate students in the UC-Merced Competitive Edge Summer Bridge program. I led programming on graduate student life, making effective scientific presentations, and grant writing - Mentor for Women in STEM ([WSTEM](http://wstem.ucmerced.edu/)) - From 2018-2020, I mentored undergraduate students through the process of applying to research experiences and graduate programs. ## **Science Communication** - Radiobio (2019-2024) - Throughout graduate school, a cornerstone of my experience was being a member, and eventually vice-president, of [radiobio.net](http://radiobio.net), a graduate student led podcast - During my time with Radiobio, I interviewed seminar speakers on various topics in biology and also produced and editing podcasts. During the pandemic, I also edited a series of podcast on COVID-19. Here is a selection of some of my favorite podcasts I have worked on: - [Dr. Ehab Abouheif: Ant Antics!](https://soundcloud.com/user-386034408/dr-ehab-abouheif-ant-antics) - [Dr. Gonzalez: Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic](https://soundcloud.com/user-386034408/chapter-5-mental-health-w-dr-gonzalez) - [Dr. Ruben Michael Ceballos: The Shocking Truth about Heat Shock Proteins](https://soundcloud.com/user-386034408/dr-ruben-michael-ceballos-the-shocking-truth-about-heat-shock-proteins) - [Dr. Alexa Sadier: Fantastic Bats and Where They Live](https://soundcloud.com/user-386034408/dr-alexa-sadier-fantastic-bats-and-where-they-live) ## **Outreach** - Radiobio Trivia Nights - I helped organize community trivia nights themed around science to engage the surrounding Merced community - ![[IMG_3644.jpg]] - Valleybio 2022 - Valleybio represents Radiobio's capstone event for community engagement, in which we bring graduate students and professors to a local venue (in this case the Merced Multicultural Arts Center) to engage the community on various topics in biology. At Valleybio 2022, we had booths on jellyfish, mushrooms, sharks, and many other topics! - ![[IMG_1599.jpg]] - ![[IMG_1592.jpg]] - Valleybio at home 2021 - Science kits - While Valleybio is an annual event, we were not able to put on this capstone event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, we decided to adapt to social distancing by making science at home kits. These included booklets with instructions and basic supplies for fun experiments at home. We passed out these kits at the Merced County Fair - ![[FVAb8CxUUAA2n3m.jpg]]