I joined forces with a good friend and 4th-grade teacher, Ms. Mitchell to virtually connect undergraduate scientific researchers with online classrooms. During the new virtual reality of the global pandemic, we were inspired to come up with new ways to bring scientific outreach to school children. The goal of this project, titled Classroom Explorers is to engage children in diverse fields and work towards an integrative and accessible scientific community. Stay tuned for more info!

During my internship at City Plants, I was given the opportunity to engage in community tree planting events in support of environmental justice. I was involved in coordinating hundreds of volunteers to plant trees in lower-income neighborhoods where canopy coverage is sparse. At the forefront of this outreach, I helped spread awareness of the importance of trees and the inequalities related to canopy coverage in LA to community and civic members while educating local students.

I had the opportunity to be a teacher in elementary school classrooms with the Joint Educational Program at USC. I was tasked with spreading knowledge about environmental issues and the importance of sustainability. JEP connects undergraduate students with children in disadvantaged neighborhoods to create a more just and balanced school system in Los Angeles. This program focuses on bringing environmental awareness into the elementary school curriculum.

When enrolled in the REU summer program at Harvard University, I served on a team of researchers to provide knowledge about the current state of robotics to future women in STEM. SET in the City is a program working to make science fields more accessible to young schoolgirls and help give them equal access to STEM that is often segregated and unequal. Our team displayed demos of swarm robotics and assisted the girls in making cost-effective robot actuators.

Before I started my undergraduate degree in environmental science, I was determined to do volunteer work. I got an opportunity to travel to Ethiopia, where I became a teacher at Strong Hearts Int. for a summer. I taught topics of English and literature, music and the arts, and STEM to underprivileged children in the city of Kore, Addis Ababa. Our team was committed to securing school supplies, support, hospice care, and other needs of the local families of disadvantaged children.