Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning has been embedded in my career choices and interests since I decided to major in broadcast journalism when I entered college. Part of the biggest appeal of being a TV journalist was that I would constantly be learning about new things and sharing my knowledge with others. Serving as a TV meteorologist served a similar role as I gained information about the upcoming weather forecast and shared it with my viewers. Transitioning into informal STEM education later in my career was a natural way to continue the learn/share cycle. This soon expanded to participating in Train the Trainer opportunities, especially those related to diversity in STEM. Once I started working in the university setting and became more involved with national efforts, I realized that I wanted to return to school to complete a masters of science in science education and once again receive more formal training. As a graduate student, I gained experience finding and assessing peer-reviewed literature which provided yet another another tool in my learning toolbox. I expanded my work and skill sets as a trainer through participating in additional training myself throughout this period. Now, as a consultant, I'm able to pull from an extensive, always expanding toolbox of experiences and knowledge I've gain to support my clients. And I often choose clients to work with and projects to take on if I think they will provide me even more opportunities to learn and grow.

Throughout all of this, an overarching trend is continued learning and growth but with the goal of being able to share what I have learned with others, cementing my understanding of the learning and facilitating a dialogue that inevitably leads to additional learning for everyone involved, myself included.