As a teacher, I care for students' success in classes and in their professional careers. I strive to motivate, stimulate, and inspire my students to be logical, critical, independent, and enthusiastic thinkers. These are life skills that are valuable to whatever profession they may eventually endeavor to do. Geoscience is inherently a very diverse and interdisciplinary field; therefore, I value the broad range of perspectives from students with different life experiences and educational backgrounds. When teaching Geology, I take every opportunity to make geology fun and relevant to students' daily lives. While scientific research typically focuses on specific topics within a particular field, I encourage students to frame their research questions in a broader scientific and social context, and to interact with researchers from different disciplines. Understanding the complex interactions between Earth's lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere is essential to unraveling the dynamic processes that shape our habitable planet.

I have assisted in teaching a variety of introductory- to graduate-level courses, including Introduction to Geological Sciences, Earth Materials and Processes, Living with Volcanoes, Geochemistry, and Igneous Petrology when I was a graduate student at the University of Washington. The faculty instructors gave me a great degree of freedom to lead lab sections, review sessions, and as a guest lecturer. In addition, I designed lab questions, prepared lab specimens and presentation slides, and graded lab reports and homework assignments. Teaching refreshes my perspective on my research and prepares me to be a better science communicator to the general public. For my career, I will continue to stimulate students' interest in Geoscience by promoting discussions across academic disciplines, broadening their research perspectives, sharpening their technical and critical thinking skills, and engaging them in innovative research projects.