Hello Everyone! My name is Samantha Hubbard and I’m a student at Oregon State University (OSU). I’ve created this blog to document my experiences and findings as a participant in OSU’s URSA program.

First, I want to share a little bit about me. I’m a Mathematics major with a focus of Secondary Education and a minor in Studio Art. I am going to school to get my bachelors and masters degree. I hope to become a high school math teacher. I would like to teach either calculus or algebra. I would like to eventually become a math professor and do research into the STEM fields. I want to increase the amount of research out there on how the integration of the arts into STEM fields widens the amount of people who have access to STEM fields. I also have a strong passion to focus my research on underepresented and underserved communites. I have always loved math and art, I’ve found that they can overlap beautifully. My main loves when it comes to art are watercolor and traditional drawing.

I wanted to join the URSA Program to begin my research on turning STEM into STEAM and improving access to STEM fields for minority groups. I hope that this process will connect me with people who have a similar passion that I do and are excited to publish their work. I’d like to learn a ton about the current research that’s out there and identify the existing gaps. I want to start on filling those gaps while getting to connect with the community at OSU. I am also excited to meet other USRA participants and learn more about their work. I am so proud to be peer to all the other wonderful researchers and scientists in this program. At the end of this program, I would like to create a series of small or one large workshop(s). I want to run my own workshop that uses an artistic approach to teach underepresented and underserved youth about an interesting STEM topic. I’m currently unsure what exact topics I will cover.

In this first week, I would like to begin connecting with new people. I hope that in meeting with new people I can work with them on brainstorming ideas for my final product. I would also like to set up a schedule and plan for the rest of this program so I have a routine to stick to. I am very passionate about this project and I want to do everything I can to ensure that I am successful. Lastly, I would like to update my LinkedIn to have it prepared for this program/experience.

Here is a link to my LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-hubbard-9a0842292/