Mentorship

Mentoring Experiences

The Importance of Mentorship

I started playing softball at three with tee-ball and played through college. Throughout my athletic career, I have interacted with amazing coaches through the five sports I played, and during my collegiate softball career. Also, through primary, secondary, and higher education I have had great mentors who have helped me get to where I am today. From each coach and teacher/professor, I have learned different characteristics that help me to be a better teacher, coach, and mentor.

I believe in the power of mentoring because I was mentored, and I believe that we should be giving back by coaching and mentoring others! I am grateful for the mentoring opportunities I have had so far, and I look forward to continuing to break down the gatekeeping aspect of academia. For example, by helping my mentees to learn the ins and outs the graduate school application process or applying to the NSF GRFP, we can make the process more open and then begin to make changes to it.

Mentoring at ND

My mentees, Therese Reisch and Emma Speyrer, recently presented their work at the University of Notre Dame College of Science and Engineering Symposium.

Emma worked with me on the ISROC project - building a global database of coastal boulder deposits (which resulted in her first peer-reviewed paper)! Emma is now a PhD student at Oregon State.

Therese worked with me on the Ireland boulder project. Through CoE grants, Therese assisted with fieldwork on three separate occasions and is working with me on a paper.

Informal and Formal Mentoring Experience:

Research Advising in conjunction with my Ph.D. Research: 3 Students

Fall 2023 - Spring 2025: Emma Speyrer (University of Notre Dame B.S. Civil Engineering 2025)
- Creating Datasets from Literature that Boast Coastal Boulder Deposit Information & Characteristics
Fall 2023 - Spring 2025: Therese Reisch
- Field Effort and Field Geomorphological Study of Western Ireland Coast (2023 Fall)
Fall 2022-Summer 2023: Elle Akerman
- Using AgiSoft for Drone Photogrammetry and Coastal Reconstructions

Mentoring as a part of AGU EPSP (Earth Surface Processes early career group)

Fall 2024-Present: Christabel Abagu (Iowa), Hannah Henry (UNC Chapel Hill)

Mentoring as a part of WICGE (Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering)

Fall 2024-Present: Amelia Bourne (WWU)

Formal Mentoring: Boise State HCACB Program & ND Programs - Five students

Fall 2024-Present: Karlee Macaw (Boise State University and undergraduate researcher in the Northwest Tissue Mechanics Lab , graduates in Spr. 2024)
Mentored through the Boise State University Honors College Alumni Chapter (HCACB) Mentoring Program
Spring 2023-Summer 2023: Natalie Selover (University of Notre Dame B.S. International Economics 2023, now working in industry)
- Mentored through the University of Notre Dame Graduate Student Mentoring Program
Fall 2022-Spring 2023: Cheyon Sheen (Boise State University B.S. Civil Engineering, now a Truman Scholar and working in Hawaii on civil eng. projects)
- Mentored through the Boise State University Honors College Alumni Chapter (HCACB) Mentoring Program
Spring 2022-Present: Vongaishe (Vongai) Mutatu (University of Notre Dame B.S. Mechanical Engineering, now a PhD student at Columbia)
- Mentored through the University of Notre Dame Graduate Student Mentoring Program
Fall 2021-2022: Miles Herget (Boise State University B.S. Interdisciplinary Studies); now an M.S. student at Arizona State University (Electrical Engineering)

Mentored through the Boise State University Honors College Alumni Chapter (HCAC) Mentoring Program

Informal Mentoring: Two students

Fall 2021-2022: Claire Vaage (Boise State University B.A. Environmental Studies and a Minor in Biology )
Fall 2020 -Spring 2021: Kalli Proffitt (Boise State University B.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)

(Above). Mentees at the International Waves Workshop Coastal Boulder Reception -Quinn (left) and Emma (right).

(Above). My mentee, Claire Vaage, was recognized as a Boise State University Top 10 Senior at the awards ceremony (April 2022).

(Above). Mentees Emma and Therese attended my Environmental Fluid Dynamics Practicum talk (2024).

(Above). Therese and I in the field (Inishmaan) where I was teaching them about rocky coastline geomorph and about waves (name the four kinds of breakers!)

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