I am a first-year master’s student in the department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Science, working with Dr. Xiquan Dong on research in the field of Meteorology. For my University of Arizona (UA)/NASA Space Grant Fellowship, I will be working with Dr. Constantino Manoli at St. Cyril of Alexandria School and the Department on bringing an underrepresented science, Meteorology, into the eighth-grade classroom. I will join Dr. Manoli in his classroom to help teach a unit about the Arizona monsoon season and the regional climate change over the Arizona sun corridor. The students will then be brought to the UA campus for a field trip where they will be able to interact with different instruments and models that aid in the forecasting and research of the seasonal monsoons and regional climate change. After this, students will complete a research project to present at El Dia, a poster session put on by the department, to gain valuable experience in research and interacting with higher education professors and students. By the end of the fellowship, I will also have created a curriculum with the goal of being able to pass this on to other schools and bridge the gap between what students are learning in higher level education and the K-12 system.

I received my bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University where I majored in Meteorology and minored in Geospatial Information Systems and Technology. Through high school, I was a mentor for students at the local elementary school and I’ve used my lifelong love of gymnastics to be a coach for kids of all ages, even throughout my time at Texas A&M. I am excited to combine my passion for meteorology and love of kids into an outreach program that can provide students with new experiences in STEM.