Outreach
Undergrad Outreach
I started outreach work while in undergrad. Some friends and I got together and decided we should start an after-school mentoring and tutoring programs in the underserved communities in our city. We contacted school principals and recruited student volunteers from our university, and regularly went into three middles schools to tutor. Sadly, after two years, as people progressed in their degrees, less people were willing to continue tutoring, and we failed to continue to recruit new volunteers. Eventually, the schools terminated the programs due to lack of mentors and a high demand from middle-schoolers.
My second organization focused on increasing undergradaute representation in university research. The organzation was backed by the Office of Undergradaute Research. We held socials for current researchers, invited alumnis who had completed undergraduate research and went into first-year experience course to present on the undergraduate research
Graduate Outreach
In graduate school, I was recruited to help with Polaris. Polaris’s mission is to increase the retention of underrepresented minorities in physics and astronomy at Ohio State. I helped raise funds and co-authored the proposal for an early-arrival program for undergraduates; co-authored the organizations constitution to ensure institutional memory; and help run the day-to-day activities of the group. Our two ongoing initiaves consist of a university listed mentorship course and the early arrival program. Our class now boasts a proud 50 students!