Service & Outreach

I am the primary coordinator for the Tucson Junior Math Circles program at the University of Arizona since Fall 2022, which I am currently running 2023-24 with Christina Durón and Matt Gherman and I ran from 2022-23 with Christina Durón and Bruce Bayly. Previously, I was a mentor in the UCI Math Circles program as a graduate student and then a mentor in the Tucson Math Circles program. Responsibilities include organizing and mentoring a cohort of elementary to middle-school aged students in weekly or biweekly math enrichment activities. 

In August 2022, I was a co-organizer of the Themed Contributed Paper session on Math Circles: Talks about Mathematical Joy, Inspirations, Data-Driven Lessons Learned, sponsored by the SIGMAA-MCST, at MathFest 2022 in Philadelphia, PA, where I also shared my research and outreach. In January 2023, Christina Durón presented our outreach at the SIGMAA MCST Special Session on Math Circle Activities as a Gateway into Math at JMM 2023 in Boston, MA. In January 2024, I co-presented our outreach at MEAD 2024, hosted by the University of Arizona.

I was the program coordinator for the UTA Program for Math and Stats Majors at the University of Arizona for Fall 2021 to Spring 2023, which I ran with Christina Durón from 2021-2022 and Aparna Upadhyay from 2022-2023. Every semester 10-15 undergraduates are selected to serve as Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTAs) through an interview and mentor matching process. This program provides undergraduates with opportunities to learn about teaching mathematics or statistics by working with a mentor instructor of an undergraduate course. Responsibilities depend on each individual UTA, and can range from simple grading and tutoring to developing rubrics and general course design. One component of the UTA program involves active participation in a weekly learning seminar (organized by the coordinators) on topics that inform UTA activities as well as better prepare UTAs for STEM careers in academia or industry. Example seminar topics include: designing rubrics for grading, writing mathematics effectively (in LaTeX), implicit bias training, and public speaking.

For a participant's perspective on this program, you can view testimonials or the final reports from past UTAs.

While at UCI, I participated in the Math CEO program from 2015 to 2021, first as a graduate mentor and later as a research analyst (see here). Math CEO was formed in 2014 to promote an increase in students from diverse backgrounds pursing STEM careers in higher education or industry. Math CEO partners with schools and families in underserved communities by providing (at no cost):

• An after-school program for middle school and high school students, focused on building stronger mentor relationships with undergraduate and graduate mentors and participants through math enrichment activities using curricula designed by UCI faculty and graduate students. Mentors are trained in effective methods to build strong connections with young participants, with an emphasis on math content, inquiry-based pedagogy, and cultural sensitivity.

• Parental outreach consisting of bilingual college-orientation workshops for middle school families run by UCI faculty, graduate students and staff.

• STEM-focused field trips to the UCI campus to raise participant interest and familiarity with a college environment.

During the ongoing pandemic, program activities needed to move online. The program readjusted its focused to further emphasize strong mentor relationships for the participants. Some of this work is featured in a news brief on the UCI Physical Sciences Communications page regarding the Inclusive Excellence Spirit Award given to Alessandra Pantano to support these mentoring efforts and a related analysis project I am jointly running. In Summer 2021 I was awarded the Summer Inclusive Excellence Award by the UCI Grad Division to support these ongoing projects.

My last year at UCI I was the inaugural COMP (Community, Outreach, and Mentoring Program) Fellow for the math department. This graduate student-led program grew out of feedback gathered by the math department during spring and summer 2020, at the height of isolation and confusion caused by the current pandemic and continued social injustices. Our work was spotlighted on the UCI Physical Sciences Communications page: Department of Mathematics makes comprehensive change: Grads in the UCI Department of Mathematics are changing their field's culture.

As the inaugural COMP fellow, I was responsible for paving the path for program success. This included 

• overseeing and running the department Peer Mentoring program;

• organizing and helping host various targeted recruitment activities; 

• leading and organizing a weekly learning seminar on topics to support student success in graduate school, with sample topics including:

  • • • Staying Sane: Mental Health Resources at UCI -- featuring a Senior Staff Psychologist from the UCI Counseling Center, 

      • History of Women in Mathematics -- organized jointly with AWM and presented jointly witht the AWM chapter president, 

      • Becoming an Anti-Racist Department -- featuring a faculty member leading a reading group topic on Alan J Bishop's "Western mathematics: The secret weapon of cultural imperialism", and 

      • Becoming an LGBTQ+ Ally: Pronoun Etiquette and Best Practices -- featuring the AGS LGBTQ+ Engagement chair;

• faciliating a non-research oriented conversation with a featured math community member -- selected from the grad, staff and faculty -- and the seminar participants, using an interview questionnaire (previous responses during my tenure can be found here);

• organizing and hosting various social events for the department (e.g., game nights using gather.town, trivia nights, and movie nights); as well as 

• organizing multiple career panels for both academic- and industry-track careers. 

Descriptions and summaries of these events and seminars can be found at the COMP Seminar Resources (2020-2021 archive) page.

Additionally, I would share resources and program documents with the broader mathematical community that could support other graduate students to start similar programs within their departments (let me know if you are interested in these). Here are the slides from my presentation on COMP as part of the Models for orienting graduate students panel at the paraDIGMS Spring 2021 conference, and here is the poster I presented in the MAA Outreach Poster session at MAA MathFest 2021.

At UCI, I organized and designed a workshop in December 2019 on parenting resources for graduate students, faculty and staff. When I started my grad program, I was a new parent and my department did not have a guide overseeing available parenting resources on or near campus. I wanted to set up a workshop for other new or expecting parents, or just those who were thinking about maybe starting a family at some point in the near future. With partial support from the UCI DECADE program, I created this workshop to share my lessons learned and to help create a dialogue to ensure others had access to important resources that they might not even be aware of. After giving an overview of my experience and UCI specific resources for parents, I moderated a discussion with a panel of faculty and graduate students. I recruited panelists from different departments with varied experiences -- from both the mother and father perspective on parenting during grad school or postdoc, interviewing while pregnant, finding additional government resources -- to get as wide a parenting view as possible. The slides I used in my presentation can be found here. 

The groundwork for this workshop led to an ongoing parenting resources workshop overseen by the UCI Office of Access and Inclusion since 2021.

I have been involved in promoting DEI activities throughout my post-bacclaureate career and grad school. After leaving Chicago, my work at SESRC involved research projects with local governments and school districts that addressed specific concerns with student success, such as identifying underserved students within a district when looking for predictors of remedial coursework in post-secondary institutions as well as identifying broader impacts of online bullying. I then worked within the classroom in a rural school near the Chehalis reservation to promote college readiness and awareness through the GEAR-UP program. 

At UCI, I also was heavily involved in many student organizations, such as the student chapters for AMS, AWS and SIAM, the latter of which I served as a Vice President (2019-2020) and then President (2020-2021). From 2019-2021 I was a student representative for the math department with DECADE, with which I received an Outstanding DECADE Representative for 2020-2021 Award by the UCI Grad Division and Office of Inclusive Excellence. In June 2021 I was awarded the Outstanding Contributions to the Department Award by the UCI School of Physical Sciences. I also was active in the SACNAS student chapter, where I helped facilitate connections between local school districts from underserved communities and graduate students to set up a Shadow a Scientist program.

Starting in January 2023, I am serving as a representative on the Climate, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (CDEI) Committee for the UA Department of Mathematics. Also starting January 2023, I was a co-organizer for the UA Peer Mentoring Program for new undergraduate math majors and currently I am co-teaching the new math major weekly colloquium.