As far back as I can remember, I have yearned to be an educator. I have fond memories of running a classroom in my parents’ back yard and giving my friends smiley-face stickers on their “assignments”. At that time (I was only 5 or 6!), I was unsure of the discipline direction or at what educational level I would like to teach, but I knew I had a visceral draw to understand the natural world. I also knew when I got older I wanted to have a family, yet not until I had my first child during the beginning stages of my doctoral program did I realize how challenging earning an education while building a family would be.
I began my Ph.D. program in Geology in 2011 as well as a part-time adjunct professor position. I progressed with my studies until early 2014 when I became pregnant with our first child. I took a two-year respite from my Ph.D. program, allowing me to refocus my drive for the degree, and to find a job that could help support my growing family. When my official leave of absence came to an end in 2016, I was reinvigorated, raising two children (I had another child during the 2-year respite), and more confident in my role as a geoscience educator. I have since had another child who is now 7 months old. I hope to be an example for future women scientists that you can have both worlds: a family and an education. I unfortunately did not have many role models of women professors with children and I can only hope that my situation and choices can prove that choosing to have children and be a highly educated woman is a valid life goal.
My research focuses on the affective (i.e., emotional) response of undergraduate geoscience students to traditional, real-world and non-traditional, virtual reality (VR) field trips. I primarily use qualitative means, such as interviews, to collect data. I ask students about their perceptions and feelings to better understand what aspects of a field trip positively or negatively impact their affective domain. The overall goals of my research are threefold: (1) to add to the extant literature pertaining to geoscience education best practices; (2) to understand the ways in which geoscience educators can grow and nurture the undergraduate geoscience community via traditional and non-traditional field trips, and; (3) to understand “what works” in the recruitment and retention of students into the geosciences by understanding the motivations and decisions of undergraduate geoscience students surrounding field trip experiences. My research has direct applications for making geoscience accessible for disabled students and applications in increasing the ability for geoscience participation, as well as in applying new knowledge to introductory major and non-major geoscience undergraduate courses to better recruit and retain students into the geosciences.
Beautiful honey😍