Empowering Underserved Students Through Hands-On Science at UCLA

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: You will have the opportunity to say a few words about your leadership project as you accept your LIS certificate at the Commencement Ceremony. Your remarks can be a version of your written executive summary. Thus, write an executive summary that can be read in 30 seconds. Be concise and precise as you summarize what you did to demonstrate leadership in sustainability. This written summary will also be posted on the LiS website, so it should make sense as stand alone text.

The UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science (CDLS) is the nation’s first university center to focus on diversity in environmental science. UCLA CDLS K-12 Outreach group, co-led by Ileana Callejas, partnered with the UCLA Early Academic Outreach Program on a Math and Science Academy on May 21, 2022. Around 100 high school students from underserved communities came to the UCLA campus and engaged in lab tours, a student panel, and numerous science demonstrations.

2. IMPORTANCE: Briefly explain why your project is important and/or why you chose this particular effort.

Diversity in STEM is critical for the advancement of science and tech fields. Underrepresented minorities and women are still largely underrepresented in engineering and research despite efforts to increase diversity. Ileana is passionate about science education and diversity in STEM. I am currently co-leading the UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science’s K-12 Outreach team. The CDLS K-12 Outreach team is focused on education, inclusion, and empowerment of K-12 students through science demonstrations and lessons. For my LiS project, she will enable members of the K-12 team to deliver engaging STEM demonstrations for an array of grade levels.

3. IMPACT AND REACH: What were the measurable outputs and outcomes of your project to advance sustainability? Who did your project reach? Be specific.

The measurable outputs of this project were in students reached through our event. We had around 100 students in attendance on the day of the math and science academy. All were high school students from underserved communities and they all partook in four sessions which could include a lab tour of three environmental engineering labs, plasma physics demo, water filtration demo, marine science demo, roller coaster physics demo, and student panel. We took surveys of the students after the event and feedback will be used to improve future events.

4. COLLABORATIONS: How did you bring others into the effort in productive ways? If there is a client, provide background about that client.

Our collaborator for this event was the UCLA Early Academic Outreach Program, an academic preparation program established to expand postsecondary education opportunities for California’s educationally disadvantaged students. Other volunteers were UCLA students recruited through the UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science.

5. YOUR ROLE WELL DEFINED: What is the nature of your contributions to the project? Please be especially clear if submitting as a group. (Examples: Did you lead a team? Manage a particular aspect of the project?) If the project was related to a job or required school assignment, how did you go above and beyond required tasks to demonstrate leadership?

For this event, I helped coordinate the event with three other graduate students. I was in charge of communicating with the associate director of UCLA EAOP on getting materials for the demos and assigning rooms for the day of the event. I was also in charge of making sure there were labs for the lab tours.

6. OPTIONAL NEXT STEPS: Do you plan to continue the effort in any way (not required)? This could involve training others to carry the torch after you graduate.

I do plan to stay involved in CDLS K-12 Outreach, but will need to train another person to lead the group since next year is my last year.