My enthusiasm for astrophysics outreach began in the 8th grade when I started volunteering at my local community college's observatory through a unique student docent program for middle and high school kids. This was where I first learned how to communicate complex scientific concepts to different audiences, operate small telescopes, find my way through the maze of night sky constellations, planets, and other celestial objects, and engage with visitors during our public observing nights. This was my favorite extracurricular activity throughout my school years and was also one of the many reasons I decided to pursue an astronomy degree in the first place: I realized I wanted to understand the physical mechanisms behind what I was seeing, both to satiate my own curiosity and also so I could be a better communicator of the science behind the nebulae and planets I was showing visitors every other weekend.

More than a decade later, I am still just as passionate about outreach and science communication. I believe that anyone can do astronomy and that it is important to foster an environment that enables anyone to be a part of scientific discovery. See the projects I've worked on to enable scientific exploration and participation for everyone, including those from previously excluded groups.

COOL-LAMPS logo. The second 'O' is in the shape of a strongly-lensed galaxy arc.

My first year of grad school, I joined the Astrobites collaboration as a writer. Astrobites is a daily science communication blog written by graduate students around the world that summarizes recent papers in astronomy. They are written at a level accessible to undergraduate students in the physical sciences and are meant to introduce students or anyone with a science background to the latest research in the field without being overwhelmed by technical jargon. I have contributed to writing over 20 articles and editing many more. With freedom to choose the papers we cover, I have enjoyed tackling the challenge of writing about some papers that are far from my subfield, including topics ranging from the dynamics of runaway stars to planetary models of the Venusian atmosphere to high redshift globular clusters. I have also contributed to various "Beyond" posts such as live-blogging at AAS meetings and interviewing plenary speakers, reporting on relevant conferences and workshops, editing and writing book reviews, and contributing to guides on topics such as accessible Jupyter Notebooks and going on your first in-person observing run.

Though I have finished my two-year rotation, I still continue to serve on various committees and write articles from time to time. I am currently a member of the Admin the Scheduling Committees. I have also served as the Website Chair, AAS Chair, and Undergrad Chair.

Astrobites logo.

After ending my two-year rotation at Astrobites, I actively pursued other opportunities to improve my writing abilities. I participated in the 2023 National Association of Science Writers (NASW) Perlman Mentoring Program, which pairs undergraduate or graduate students interested in science writing with a mentor in the field and provides the opportunity to write a science news article and have it published in a news outlet. Through this program, I was paired with a (now) former science writer for APS, who mentored me through the process of writing an article about a recent paper detailing the discovery of new stars in the Magellanic Stream, a tail left by by the LMC and SMC galaxies as they infall into the Milky Way.

Though I had written for Astrobites before, pitching and writing something for a news outlet was a very different experience — I had to learn how to find a news-worthy story that I could cover in 500-750 words, solicit and conduct interviews with paper authors and outside experts, and work with my mentor to revise my story to journalistic standards. I learned so much about how science journalism is actually conducted, and at the end of the program my article was accepted to and published in Sky & Telescope!

Detroit Observatory

I am currently a Student Docent at the historic Detroit Observatory (DO), where I have been working since it reopened to the public after major renovations in 2022. The observatory houses an 1854 Meridian Circle telescope and an 1857 12⅜-inch Fitz refracting telescope (pictured right). As a docent, I am guide for daytime and nighttime tours through the building, lead observing experiences with the Fitz, and have given numerous public talks on topics ranging from imaging processing in astronomy to space junk. In 2024, I was promoted to a Lead Docent, where I train other docents in use of the telescope and tour giving, and am occasionally the lead supervisor for public open houses. I have also created display materials for the observatory, including processed images and descriptions of deep-sky objects we have taken through the Fitz, and also participated in a DO trip to see the 2024 total solar eclipse in Ohio, where we set up equipment to view and image the eclipse and were interviewed for a public live stream run by the University of Michigan Climate and Space department to discuss eclipse science.

View looking down the barrel of the a telescope that is pointed at the moon that can be seen through a narrow dome slit. Everything is bathed in red light from a red lightbulb that is hanging by a window.
a long white telescope on a large blue pier inside a dome. There is spiral staircase on the left leading up to a platform on the pier, and there are also orange wheels and brown weights through the pier and perpendicular to the telescope.

Yerkes Observatory

In college, I had the incredible opportunity to intern at the historic Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. I wore many hats, including IDATA intern, Intern Supervisor, and Telescope Operator.

Innovators Developing Accessible Tools in Astronomy (IDATA)

My main internship at Yerkes was part of a three-year project called Innovators Developing Accessible Tools for Astronomy (IDATA). This was an initiative to make astronomy concepts and data analysis accessible to blind and visually impaired (BVI) communities. The project aimed to develop an astronomy-image processing and analysis software, Afterglow Access, that is accessible for BVI students through User Centered Design (UCD). Together as a group of both sighted and BVI students, we generated dozens of hands-on activities, educational resources, and videos that can help reduce the barriers to access and participation in astronomy for BVI students. I helped create a tactile representation of the electromagnetic spectrum using yarn of various widths on large cardboard puzzle pieces that students can put together and understand concepts such as frequency and energy of a wave, modified a spectroscopic plug plate from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with an Arduino and wired beads that audibly and tactually represent the redshift of the galaxies and quasars represented on the plate, and designed many other curricular resources. I also helped with the development and execution of lesson plans for the teachers involved in the program.

Operating the 40-inch Great Refractor

Among other telescopes, Yerkes is home to "The Great Refractor", the largest refracting telescope in the world with a lens of 40 inches in diameter (pictured left)! My second summer as an intern, I was trained to be a telescope operator for this 1897 refractor and helped lead public observing nights for visitors of all ages. During the last month of the internship, I was the lead organizer and contact for a series of observing nights (or tours of the building if the weather was bad) for the public, where I was responsible for scheduling and interfacing with interested parties, engaging guests, pointing and operating the telescope, and managing payment and donations.

Besides being a telescope operator and tour guide, I also helped with summer camps, star parties, and other public events by manning telescopes on the observatory lawn or occupying visitors with hands-on activities and demonstrations.

Geneva Lake Astrophysics and STEAM logo Geneva Lake Astrophysics and STEAM


After the temporary closure of Yerkes Observatory in 2018, I worked with the non-profit Geneva Lake Astrophysics and STEAM (GLAS Education) that is sustaining some Yerkes outreach and education programs to keep STEM outreach in the local community. I volunteer there both remotely and whenever I am in the area, helping with public programming, creating of promotional materials, and supporting many GLAS initiatives.

In response to the pandemic and our sudden inability to host in-person programs, I planned and co-hosted 15 livestream events over YouTube where we invited speakers from various backgrounds to talk about topics and research in astronomy like gravitational waves and globular clusters. We utilized Stone Edge Observatory, a remotely controlled 20-inch telescope in Sonoma, CA, to broadcast observing and imaging nights to the public and teach students about telescope operation and imaging.

During this time, we also began broadening access to authentic astronomy research to underrepresented groups through a collaboration with the West African and South African Regional Offices of Astronomy for Development (ROAD). This partnership provides students in those regions who do not have easy access to telescopes the opportunities to foster professional connections with colleagues around the world and develop skills in independently identifying potential targets of interest, planning and scheduling observations using planetarium software, basics of astronomical imaging and data reduction. I co-led observing every weekend with Stone Edge where we gave students practice in deciding what objects to observe, the filters and exposure time to use, and evaluating image quality.

I also helped provided support and mentorship in applying for grants and fellowships and gave students opportunities for small research projects. Our students were able to present at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Astronomical Society of Nigeria, and the 32nd IAU General Assembly conferences, and they published a paper in the Minor Planet Bulletin on analyzing and plotting the light curves of two previously uncharacterized asteroids. We had weekly meetings and office hours where I helped lead discussions about image reduction, DS9, Topcat, and analysis with Python, as well as worked with students one-on-one to give them personalized help and mentorship on their projects.