UNIVERSITY LEVEL:
STEM Fam at Berkeley, 2017 – 2019 – a monthly professional development series that I founded and chaired in which graduate students and postdocs in STEM at the University of California, Berkeley came together for support, professional development, mentorship, and community. The intent of STEM Fam is to provide a welcoming and supportive community from which friendships, mentorships, and collaborations can naturally develop while simultaneously ensuring the well-being, high-retention rate, and success of all Berkeley graduate students and postdocs in their academic, research, and future careers.
STEMpowerment planning committee, 2017 – 2018 – a planning committee for the STEMpowerment event at the University of California Berkeley where Professor Talithia Williams from Harvey Mudd College gave her insights into the current state of diversity in academia and ways in which future efforts can improve equity and inclusion in higher education. I also served as moderator for the discussion with Professor Williams after her lecture. Video recording of the event is available on YouTube.
Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE), 2014 – 2016 – a fellowship and mentorship program at Stanford University aimed at recruiting and retaining outstanding doctoral students who have the potential to contribute to the diversity of their academic fields and departments. As a mentor for the program, I regularly met with two junior graduate student fellows to discuss their degree progress, answer questions, respond to concerns, and provide general advice to help them each through the early stages of their doctoral degrees. I also served on multiple panels, offering my advice and personal experience to the broader EDGE fellow community.
GRAD Diversity Day planning committee, 2012 – 2016 – an annual planning committee for the Stanford Graduate Recruiting and Diversity Day which showcases Stanford’s commitment, resources, and community to newly-admitted graduate students. I served as a graduate student representative on the committee each year of my doctoral studies and helped organize and execute all of the student-led initiatives throughout the visitation weekend.
The Markaz Resource Center:
Markaz Director Search Committee, 2014 – 2015 – reviewed applications for the Markaz director position, discussed and designed the interview process, performed Skype and on-campus interviews of candidates, and selected the final candidate for the position.
Markaz Advisory Board, 2014 – 2016 – an advisory board to The Markaz Resource Center on which I provided input, direction, and a vision for the center in its first couple of years as a new community center at Stanford University.
HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL:
Greene Scholars Program, 2015-2019 – a science program geared towards getting young black youth in the local San Francisco Bay area involved in science at an early age. The program included an annual science fair and mentorship opportunity in which scientists and engineers from the community, including myself, could come advise the youth in their science projects.
Challenge Accepted, 2015-2016 – a program aimed at building a bridge between the graduate student community at Stanford University and under-represented minority youth in the local San Francisco Bay area. The goal of the program is to introduce the high school students to different fields of graduate study and build mentorship relationships between them and Stanford graduate students. The high school students are hosted on campus for 5 successive weekends, with each weekend’s activities focused on a specific field of graduate study, including engineering, law, business, humanities and social sciences, and the biosciences. As part of the organizing team, I led the engineering workshop as well as the laboratory demonstrations. In addition, I mentored two students through the length of the program and guided them in discussions of their future disciplinary interests and the college and financial aid application process.
MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL:
East Palo Alto Stanford Academy (EPASA), 2011-2016 – a tutoring/mentorship program for local middle school students that takes place every Saturday throughout the academic year at Stanford University. I was involved in EPASA throughout the entirety of my Ph.D. career. Each year I became the dedicated tutor-mentor for a single middle school student, but also taught occasional larger elective classes to a group of middle school students. Each Saturday, I tutored my student in math, English, and other subjects. On certain weekends each quarter of the year, I taught science-related elective classes, for which I would design and plan small hands-on activities. My goal for these workshops was to pique the students’ interests in particular aspects of science and technology. Some of the workshops I created and led were: the magnetism behind headphones where I taught students to build their own small loudspeakers using paper bowls and magnets; music mixing and sound editing using a free, open-source, computer software called Audacity; and magnetic levitation where students constructed demo MagLev trains.
Positive Spin, Summer 2011 – a cycling camp for inner-city middle school students in Pittsburgh that took the youth off the streets during the summer and into daily workshops on bike maintenance and cycling. I was involved in the daily afternoon cycling and mentorship program. By the end of the summer, all of the students (even those who had never ridden a bike before that summer) were able to complete a two-day cycling trip totaling in 100 miles ridden!