Teaching & Outreach
I have been teaching since I was sixteen years old, when I worked as a swim instructor for children ages 3-15. I worked as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant and tutor while attending the University of Pittsburgh for my undergraduate degree. As a graduate student, I have received a Graduate Teaching Certificate from the University of Illinois Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. I have also mentored two undergraduate students in independent research projects. Teaching is one of my greatest passions, and I take every opportunity available to improve my teaching and mentoring skills.
Here, I list some of the major teaching, mentoring, and outreach activities with which I am involved.
Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Tanay Agrawal
In the 2023-24 academic year, I participated as a research mentor through the University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program, or URAP. In Fall 2023, I received research mentoring training and developed a one-semester research project. I mentored Tanay Agrawal, an undergraduate at UIUC, through this project in Spring 2024. Through this program, I received a Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning Mentoring Certificate.
I continued to work with Tanay through Summer 2025, and his work resulted in a publication in Research Notes of the AAS. You can learn more about his research project here.
SEA Mentoring Programs
In addition to research mentoring, I have mentored two undergraduate students through the UIUC Astronomy Department's Society for Equity in Astronomy, or SEA. This program provides undergraduates with a graduate student mentor to discuss coursework, life as an undergraduate, careers in astronomy, and graduate school applications. I have been a mentor in the program since Fall 2022.
In Fall 2025, I started an informal mentoring program for first-year graduate students in the UIUC Astronomy Department. This program pairs first-year graduate students with graduate students who have completed the preliminary exam (typically taken in the third year). This program provides a support structure for incoming graduate students and helps them connect to more senior students, facilitating their integration into the department community.
Leadership Positions
In Summer and Fall 2025, I was a member of Stewards' Council Leadership for the Graduate Employees' Organization Local 6300 at the University of Illinois. I managed new steward onboarding and training programs. I am currently a GEO steward for the Astronomy Department.
In academic year 2023-2024, I was co-chair of SEA, the Society for Equity in Astronomy at UIUC. SEA provides several services to undergraduates and grad students at UIUC, including a mentor-mentee program, information on research funding and opportunities, study breaks, and our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tea with visiting colloquium speakers. In 2024, in addition to our usual programming, we hosted panels on applying to graduate schools and summer research opportunities for our undergraduates.
Girls' Astronomy Summer Camp Director
I ran the UIUC High School Girls' Astronomy Summer Camp in Summer 2023 and 2024. This camp is aimed at local high schoolers with a focus on girls and gender minorities. We offer several hands-on activities (telescope observing, spectroscopy) as well as coding education to teach high schoolers about astronomy as a career.
As director, I developed camp curriculum and coordinated with the University of Illinois, the Town of Urbana, Parkland College, and student organizations to develop a curriculum in astronomy. In 2024, I expanded the summer camp to a full week, advocated for the department to hire another graduate student as co-director, and recruited nearly double the campers we had in 2023. The summer camp website can be found here.