“The first job I had after graduate school as as a Visiting Assistant Professor, and the chair of the department I worked in told me that they noticed I had participated in Delta and that this was a huge plus on my CV.”
Current Position: Academic Professional, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology
UW–Madison Career: PhD, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Delta Internship Project: Are Popular Media Sources on Climate Science Negatively (or Positively) Affecting Public Climate Literacy
What motivated you to start participating in Delta?
Like many others that have completed the Delta Certificate Program, I had a strong interest in teaching and wanted to learn more about how to become the most effective instructor that I could be.
What Delta course really made a difference in how you are teaching, mentoring, or approaching your career?
The College Classroom: the course covered teaching pedagogy and forced us to participate in teaching demos and in-class “hands-on” exercises. Nick Balster was an awesome instructor for the class, and we’ve actually created a seminar course for training TA’s at my institution that has elements of this class within our seminar.
How did participating in Delta prepare you to become a more inclusive educator?
The Delta program overall helped me learn about the importance of inclusivity within college courses, and I think about this issue all the time when creating a course or updating a course every semester.
How did Delta help you become better at mentoring and advising students?
While I don’t directly mentor graduate students, I am an undergraduate advisor, and Delta helped me learn about how people learn and how to think of ways to reframe teaching and advising to help all students regardless of their knowledge background.
How did participating in Delta prepare you to become a more effective and evidence-based educator?
The Delta Internship Program as well as The College Classroom course inspired me to rethink how I teach classes, and I now have participated in publishing and presenting science education research as a result of these experiences.
What impact did completing the Delta Internship and Delta Certificate have on you?
I think it basically played a key role in getting my current job. I have a non-tenure track position that is teaching-based, and completing the Delta Certificate, along with having extensive TA and lecture experience prior to acquiring this position, helped strengthen my application and CV. I am actively involved in science education research as a result of completing the Delta Certificate, as it inspired me to continue pursuing this type of research.
How did Delta prepare you for the job market?
The first job I had after graduate school was as a Visiting Assistant Professor, and the chair of the department I worked in told me that they noticed I had participated in Delta and that this was a huge plus on my CV.
What specific skills from the Delta Program do you use in your current role?
I participate in “teaching-as-research” projects and science education research. For example, I have been a co-author on a couple of recent Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) papers related to science education research, including a study about a course from the AOS department at UW–Madison that I was a TA for.