Hello Everyone! We are about 1/3rd of the way through the URSA program, which is super exciting. Here’s a little bit of what I’ve been up to and what’s next!

Networking:

Since my last check-in, I have been able to grow my LinkedIn connections from twenty-three to fifty-seven. I have mostly been connecting with other URSA students, but also with people my mentor, Victor Villegas, has connected me with. One of the people I have connected to was Beatriz Martin. I reached out to her on LinkedIn and we set up a meeting. Ms. Martin has a background in science illlustrating, visual storytelling, animating, nature sketching, certified medical illlustrating and was even a medical doctor. She has explored many career paths and as a result has a unique way of integrating STEM fields with art fields. Our meeting was a wonderful way for me to gather information about how to go about teaching STEM topics to students with art. She gave me examples such as graphing functions then using those graphs to create art pieces. I have a feeling she will provide a lot of useful insight as my URSA program progresses.

Next Step:

Next week I will be going back home for Spring break and volunteering at my old high school. I will be shadowing in a calculus class for about a week and I am hoping to gather information for my URSA project. I want to talk to my old caclulus teacher about how I can put on an effective STEAM workshop. Fortunatly, my old caclulus teacher has a background in both mathematics and art, so he will hopefully be able to provide a lot of assistance! I am alos going to talk to faculty at my old school to see if I can put on a workshop or figure out where I could put on a workshop (like at my local library or something along those lines).

I am excited to begin interviewing more people and get my workshop idea’s off the ground.