STEAM Activities

I love to incorporate art into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM + Art = STEAM). One aspect of my community engagement practice is to develop fun activities on polymer fabrication and design. I have instructed youth participants on creating sodium alginate beads infused with highlighter dyes at assemble, a community space for arts and technology in Pittsburgh, PA.

Language Inclusive Settings

I am a heritage Spanish speaker with a dialectic tone from Central American parents whose primary language is an indigenous Mayan language. I believe this adds complexity of learning and speaking minority languages in the U.S., where the majority language is English. My nuanced perspective has motivated me to create STEAM activities in both English and Spanish for youth from similar diasporas. I co-authored, earned, and conducted bilingual activities for our community engagement grant to teach rapid prototyping tools (3D modeling, Tinkercad) and studio arts/craft design with youth participants at Casa San Jose, an immigrant resource center in Pittsburgh, PA

Leadership in Latine/Latinx Communites

I leveraged my lived experience and engineering training to become a leader in my field. I have previously served as academic chair for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE de ASU) and community chair for LatinxInBME, a virtual community for biomedical engineers across Latin America and the U.S.. Through my professional and academic network I have co-authored perspectives on strategies to communicate biotechnology to broad audiences.