I directly mentored 17 students from underrepresented and low-income backgrounds pursuing STEM majors at OCC. That meant weekly check-ins, help with transfer applications and career planning, and being someone they could actually talk to about the reality of being a first-gen student in STEM.

I also organized workshops on research skills, academic writing, and career development, and served as president of the OCC STEM Club at the same time — the two roles overlapped a lot, and I tried to make events useful to both groups.

I was a member before I was president, STEM club was dominated by engineers and computer scientists - mostly male. My goal with this club was to move an engineering-dominated environment towards a more inclusive, collaborative, and supportive one for all STEM students. Our projects and workshops spanned a wide range of STEM fields, some of which included astronomy, marine science, biology, mathematics, and horticulture.

Some pictures on LinkedIn if you want to see what it looked like.

Through the Microsoft TEALS program, I helped build and run a CS education program teaching Code.org's CS Principles curriculum to middle school students. I worked closely with the classroom teacher to adapt pacing, run hands-on activities, and find explanations that actually landed for that age group.

Watching students go from "I don't get why we're doing this" to debugging their own programs was one of the better things I've experienced.

My first job. I tutored OCC students in Honors Calculus, Precalculus, Trigonometry, College Algebra, and Statistics. I learned quickly that there's a real gap between knowing something and knowing how to explain it — and that finding exactly where someone's understanding breaks down is a skill in itself.

This is where I figured out that I actually enjoy teaching, not just as a part-time job, but as something I want to keep doing.