CUWiP 2019

In January 2019, Northwestern is hosting a regional conference for 166 undergraduate women in physics. This conference will be comprised of mostly panels, workshops, and networking events. I am one of the Programming Committee leads. My job has been to find and vet panel members, and help organize the logistics of the panels sessions. This includes gathering speaker information, meeting with different offices on campus to organize workshops, and communicating with other committee leads about various needs of the conference.

Physics Slam VII

In 2018 I gave a public lecture at Fermilab’s Physic Slam lecture night. This event attracts approximately 900 people (children included) each year. Here, 5 people each give a ten minute talk about something related to physics. The audience has ample time to ask questions, both directly after the talk and during a meet and greet session after.

Women in Astronomy

During our first year of graduate school (2013), another student and I decided to take on the task of creating a Women in Astronomy group at the University of Illinois. This group was aimed at creating a network between women at all levels in the Astronomy Department, where women feel they can express themselves freely and without judgement. In 2015 I became the Vice Chair of this group and helped create many of the on-going activities. Some of these programs include an Astronomy Culture Journal Club, mentoring between undergraduate and graduate students, and a coffee/tea time with any colloquium speaker that identifies as being a woman.

2017 Solar Eclipse

In 2017 the Illinois Astronomy Department hosted a totality event in Goreville, IL. I helped with the planning and organization of this event. During the event I was one of the lead logistical people helping participants with where they needed to go. Additionally, in the months prior to the eclipse, I gave an all school assembly to elementary aged students about how to safely view this event.

Girl’s Astronomy Summer Camp

In the summer of 2015, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), hosted a GEMS (Girls Engineering and Math) summer camp that was Astronomy based. In the following summers (2016 and 2017), the Astronomy Department at Illinois hosted similar events. For all 3 camps, I helped organize the activities, and run demonstrations.

Local Outreach

I have participated in various local outreach events. The AstroIllini group has hosted after-school programs where we lead different activities to elementary/middle-school aged students that are astronomy related. This group has also organized other public events with hands-on activities at places such as the local library and farmer’s market.