Teaching

Throughout my undergraduate career, I became thoroughly invested in teaching various courses through the department of biology at Penn State. Each of my roles amongst the courses varied, but were unique in that I was able to function relatively independently from my faculty mentors. Through these experiences, I have become passionate in not only teaching for the sake of presenting new material to students, but in hope of inspiring students in peaking their interest in science and research.

Since graduating from Penn State, I sought out a new experience to continue honing my mentorship skills. Through the Illinois Science and Technology Institute, I was selected as a Research Advisor for high school students, working remotely. Since 2018, each school year, I have taken on 5 students taking the AP Research course, where students develop their own independent projects, implement the scientific method, collect their own data, submit a thesis, and complete a defense presentation.

As I begin my graduate teaching career at the University of Rochester, I was a graduate TA for Dr. Jennifer Aube’s Developmental Child Psychopathology course during Fall 2020 and will be a TA for Dr. Christopher Neimic’s Human Motivation course for Spring 2021.

Courses

PSYCH 262 | Human Motivation
Graduate Teaching Assistant | Spring 2021
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Christopher Neimic
The University of Rochester| Department of Psychology

PSYCH 289 | Developmental Child Psychopathology
Graduate Teaching Assistant | Fall 2020 & Fall 2021
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Jennifer Aube
The University of Rochester| Department of Psychology

The learning for this course is primarily asynchronous, where students are assigned to watch pre-recorded lectures and complete assigned readings. The class of over 120 students is divided among 2 TAs and on days that students would have anticipated meeting, groups of 20 meet with their assigned TA to complete application prompts, such as specific case studies related to the content for that week.

BIOL 230W | Molecules and Cells
Primary Laboratory Teaching Assistant | Fall 2017, Spring 2018
Faculty Supervisors: Dr. Jennelle Malcos (Fall 2017), Dr. Matthew Endres (Spring 2018)
The Pennsylvania State University | Department of Biology

Each semester, I was responsible for co-teaching a weekly 3-hour lab section of about 25 students. During the lab block, students were guided through hands-on applications of genomics and cellular biology including techniques such as PCR and gel electrophoresis interpretation.

BIOL 120A | Plants, Places, and People
Teaching Assistant | Spring 2017, Spring 2018
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Glenna Malcolm
The Pennsylvania State University | Department of Biology

The breadth of this course introduced to non-science majors the widespread use of various plants and their histories such as chocolate, sugar, and cotton. Students were also guided through how to interpret peer reviewed sources, how to write scientifically, and how to implement in-text citations. My primary role was in evaluating student work and developing exam material.

BIOL 110S | Basic Concepts and Biodiversity Freshman Research Initiative
Research Supervisor | Fall 2016
Faculty Supervisors: Dr. Kim Nelson and Dr. Glenna Malcolm
The Pennsylvania State University | Department of Biology

This unique experience is rooted in Penn State’s introductory biology course, where freshman are able to opt to complete a research intensive lab versus the typical structured course lab work. During my 2nd year at Penn State, I was selected as a supervisor for the incoming class. My primary responsibilities included mentoring students in implementing the scientific method to a small scale, independent research project of his/her own– accumulating in a final end of semester presentation of his/her work.