This week, I attended a virtual dinner for the Young Scientist Program to encourage the next generation scientists (K-12 students). I got to talk about how I sort of “fell” into my science career, but how grateful I am to the programs that trained me in undergrad. It is always so nice to share with highly curious and motivated students, I haven’t felt so hopeful about the future of STEM since participating in Skype a Scientist!

This month, I was also an invited speaker at Sacramento State University! I talked about my journey through science, a recently published paper, and discussed the background for my dissertation! Although I did not have data to present on my dissertation, it was a great opportunity to hear from other’s about what we can learn from studying non-traditional species! I’d love to come back once I finish my time at UC Davis to share what we learned from my work. Thanks for having me, Sac State!