GRADUATE
NEUROSCIENCE OUTREACH AND VOLUNTEER ASSOCIATION
The mission of the Neuroscience Outreach and Volunteer Association (NOVA) is to foster civic responsibility within the neuroscience community in Baltimore through outreach activities planned by faculty, staff and students. I have represented NOVA at numerous events since my first year of graduate school at UMB, including at the children's museum Port Discovery (pictured left), the Maryland STEM Career Fair for Girls and monthly BINGO nights with psychiatric patients at Spring Grove Hospital, among others.
I currently serve as the Brain Awareness Week Chair, where I lead trips to Baltimore City middle and elementary schools each March as part of our involvement in the annual global campaign to educate the public about the brain and brain research. Faculty, staff and students perform interactive demonstrations with over 200 middle school students. Pictured are students learning about muscle signaling through the human-to-human interface (right), holding real human brains at our comparative brain anatomy station (bottom; left) and exploring invertebrate electrophysiology with a SpikerBox (bottom; right).
UNDERGRADUATE
HERPETOLOGY OUTREACH PROGRAM
The Herpetology Outreach Program at JMU (JMU HOP) is a new program run by students that aims to make herpetology accessible to a wider audience. Involvement with this program has allowed me to participate in the Science Sunday for girls program, which contributes to increasing the participation of women in STEM fields. I have also gotten to interact with many at-risk high school students while sharing my love and enthusiasm for science and research.
STUDENT AMBASSADORS
Student Ambassadors is a selective, professional organization that participates in and hosts myriad service projects in addition to providing campus tours to prospective students and families, all while acting as representatives of JMU at large.
As a Student Ambassador, I developed and implemented the first regular campus tours of the side of campus containing all of the science facilities ("East Campus"). I trained the entire organization on how to give these tours and am excited to see that they are still being offered by current JMU Ambassadors to inspire and encourage prospective students interested in the sciences.
During my time as an Ambassador, I also served on the Membership Board, which is responsible for planning and running all training events for new members (right, bottom: new member overnight), in addition to serving as the Admission-Service Committee Head.
BBB BIOLOGICAL HONOR SOCIETY
My first semester as a member of BBB, I served the organization as Service Chair. The main project my committee and I achieved was an outreach trip to a local low-income area high school where many of the students are potential first-generation college students. All three science teachers at the school graciously welcomed us into all of their classes for a day where we were able to share information on amphibians and reptiles through a collaboration with JMU HOP in addition to introducing the idea of research at the collegiate level and beyond. We also volunteered at a local nonprofit homeless shelter, providing after-school tutoring for the children living there.