Leading in the classroom and beyond
We believe to be effective educators requires leading in the classroom. To inspire and engage students through visuals, activities, demonstrations, and open-ended projects and problems. Guided failure is the best teacher.
Biomaterials Seminar
As part of the University of Florida Summer Science Training Program (SSTP), graduate students are given the opportunity to design and teach their own 10-week seminar course for the high school students participating in SSTP. My colleague, Syd Wiggins, and I came together to teach IDH2931 Honors Seminar, an introductory course on biomaterials science and engineering. The instruction was divided into lectures on different topics in biomaterials from immunoengineering to cell–material interactions. Students were tasked to read and present journal articles on biomaterials, to create social media posts to promote STEM, and to design and demonstrate a biomaterials activity and lesson that could be used to share with their classmates back home.
UF SFB Chapter
I was tremendously active in Society For Biomaterials (SFB) since starting my graduate studies at the University of Florida as part of the UF student chapter. In 2020, I joined the SFB National Student Chapter leadership as the Secretary/Treasurer - Elect for 2020-2021. Before that I was the President of the UF Student Chapter from Fall 2019 to Spring 2021. During my second year, I was the Chapter’s Outreach Coordinator in which I created our 1st place winning Biomaterials Education Challenge lesson in 2019. I taught the lesson on multiple occasions to various audiences (students and the general public) and age groups (K-12 and above) with tremendous engagement. During my third year, I rose to be the Chapter’s President. In this leadership role, I oversaw the day-to-day activities of the Chapter and led Chapter meetings. To liven up the meetings, I introduced seasonal videos from the Reactions series produced by the American Chemical Society. I organized the virtual 10th Annual University of Florida Biomaterials Day symposium. Likewise, I promoted professional development activities and workshops, interfaced with department administration, championed the organization across the University of Florida campus, and supported mental health and social activities like gingerbread decorating and trivia nights to strengthen the bonds of the campus biomaterials community.