Outreach
One of my goals as a scientist is to generate enthusiasm in students and the public. I am involved in multiple groups around IU that allow me to both pass on my love of science to others while participating in professional development to improve my scientific communication.
Science communicationEach year, I participate in ScienceFest at IU. This event is open to the public and encourages the Bloomington community to come on campus and learn about the cool STEM research happening. These past two years, the Lennon Lab has hosted a "Bacterial Viruses" table where we explained the phage infection cycle and showed visitors what phage look like using 3D printed models.
I have participated in Letters to a Pre-Scientist, an awesome organization that matches STEM professionals with pen pals to communicate about STEM careers and humanize STEM professionals. The 2020-2021 school year will be my second year as a STEM professional for the program. I would encourage all STEM professionals to sign-up and participate in this program! Articles I have written for ScIU, the Conversations in Science at Indiana University blog: The Microorganism Survival Toolkit: Dormancy |
ScienceFest: Showing visitors our 3D phage models and some plaque assays!
|
Mentorship
I serve as a mentor for the Groups Scholars STEM Initiative at IU. My goal is to help my mentee grow professionally, academically and personally through connection to resources around campus, exposure to opportunities. The 2020-2021 school year will be my third year as a Groups STEM mentee and the connection provided by this program will be more important than ever in the time of COVID-19 driven online learning.
Professional development
I was previously a Graduate Women in STEM (GWiSTEM) Teaching Fellow. This program creates a cohesive network of graduate women in STEM fields who focus on research-based teaching, mentoring and public outreach throughout the year. As a capstone of our 2019-2020 year, we created and ran a