Broader Impacts

Throughout my journey as a Ph.D. candidate, I strive to leave an impact not just on the scientific community but also through teaching and educating others. I firmly believe in passing on the skills and knowledge I've acquired to educate and inform the next generation of geoscientists and environmental scientists.

Teaching is amazing! I love getting others excited and curious about new ideas but also, it's a learning experience for me as well. This provides an opportunity for me to better communicate ideas more easily to others in a plain languange manner instead of just spewing "big words". I also understand from experience that having one teaching style is not suitable for everyone's learning patterns and I strive to be patient and accommodating to everyone's unique learning capabilities.

I believe that it is important as a teacher to be able to be flexible and patient in educating others and I strive to break down difficult concepts into simpler and plain language through a variety of means (flipped classrooms, mobile and flexible office hours, more in class/hands on activities) while also incorporating DEI best practices to ensure any individual obtains the same learning outcomes.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Geoscience (AAPIiG)

Post lunch selfie with three of our outstanding AGILE interns from AGU 2023!

As a member and mentor of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Geosciences (AAPIiG) through the AAPI in Geosciences Inclusivity Leadership and Experience (AGILE) program, I had the opportunity to co-mentor 8 AAPI undergraduates in geoscience-related fields with Watsawan (Fai) Chanchai. We taught a professional development course that provided a knowledge platform for resume and CV building, technical and networking skills, and career outlooks in government, industry, and academia that complemented the research they were involved in over the summer. Most of these students presented their work at the Geological Society of America Connects 2023 meeting or the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in 2023.

Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE)

Incorporation of DEI best practices

Graduate and undergraduate students attending a social hour gathering with an invited speaker. Note the high graduate student turn out!
PC: Peter Wilf

In each of the courses that I have taught regardless of the setting (traditional classroom, flipped classroom, in the lab, or in the field), my main goal is to ensure a safe working environment. I implement DEI best practices and techniques that fit the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience Education (URGE) in my teaching curriculum to ensure that any individual regardless of their race, age, sex, gender, culture, physical fitness, socio-economic status, or background knowledge is able to obtain the same learning outcomes. Teaching reviews available upon request.**

As a colloquium committee chair (2023 - present) for the Penn State Geoscience Colloquium, I am responsible for implementing DEI best practices to ensure that our guest department speakers represent a range of employment professions (academia and workforce), career stages (early, mid, late career), disciplines (physical geology and biogeochemistry), home institutions, race, sex, gender, and hosted by faculty at different career stages. I have also implemented several changes to our colloquium series mainly (1) to ensure that talks are targeted toward a broader geoscience audience that is open to the public along (2) introduction of a social informal gathering with our speakers after their talks to continue to talk about science outside of the "academic" setting and to bolster graduate and undergraduate participation with colloquium speakers (see left).

I am fortunate to have worked with Eric Hasegawa and Fran Meyer during my time in the colloquium committee.

Undergraduate Mentorship

Grace Lundy (2024 WISER Intern) presenting at the Fall Symposium

I have and continue to mentor multiple undergraduate students here at Penn State. Most of the students I have been teaching and mentoring are students that are part of the NASA PA Space Grant Consortium - Women in Science and Engineering Research (WISER) or are doing their senior thesis. In either case, I aim to do the best I can in creating a safe and inclusive working environment and ignite the flame that inspires my mentees to obtain hands on research experience and integrate it into their professional skillset!

Here are links to some of the students I have mentored:

Grace Lundy (2024 NASA WISER Intern) -

Controls on Boulder Displacement in Swallow Gorge, Taiwan

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Johnson (2023 NASA WISER Intern) - LinkedIn Post

Mapping Postfire Debris Flow Scour in the San Gabriel Mountains, California

Grace Druschel (2022 NASA WISER Intern) - Penn State News Article

Controls on Dry Ravel Loading following the 2020 Bobcat Fire, California

Broader Community Outreach

I have had the opportunity to teach a short curriculum about the geologic history of Pennsylvania and geologic processes like erosion, deposition, fossilization, glaciation, and sea level change. I have been teaching a short activity for our local elementary school students demonstrating the local geologic history of central Pennsylvania, more specifically (1) how plate tectonics and glaciation influence sea level over geologic time of the North American continent and (2)how sea level effects deposition and erosion through a stream table exercise.

Sinead Lyster setting up a stream table exercise.