SUCCESSES AND THE 2015 NAC COHORT IN SOCORRO Dr. Betsy Mills (talk delivered by Dr. Laura Pérez)

All the credit here goes to Betsy!  Dr. Elisabeth Mills  Jansky Fellow at NRAO  Galactic Center Expert  She talks the talk and walks the walk!  Awesome role model for our students

Who are we?  NAC cohort in Socorro  located at the VLA Science Operations Center in Socorro, NM Our students Tierra Candelaria Elizabeth Gutierrez Adria Peterkin Kevin Gima Antonio Porras

Who are we? Our mentors Betsy Mills Viviana Rosero Sarah Burke- Spolaor Demian Arancibia Laura Pérez

Outline Before student selection Before the summer started Our NAC activities during summer Successes & Challenges Where can we improve?

1. Before student selection  Advertising of the NAC program in Socorro  Meeting with interested mentors from NRAO  Goal: raise awareness, increase participation  Succeeded?  Maybe — all of the people at the NAC advertisement meeting got an REU summer student, but only a few of those were NAC students.

2. Before the summer started  Mentors:  Get training: discussions on issues faced by minorities, what makes a good student and a good advisor, discussion on unconscious bias, impostor syndrome, stereotype threat, etc.  Decide on any student prep required before starting  Determine summer agenda/schedule  Goal: get mentors on the same page regarding program and commitment  Succeeded? Yes – was best way of communication during this time

2. Before the summer started  Students:  One-on-one assessment with NAC coordinator (opportunity to ask questions, concerns, get to know coordinator)  Complete survey  Goal: coordinator got to meet students, identify and alleviate any worries (from practical to intangible) that the students may have had…

3. NAC activities during summer  Goal: build cohort bonds, enrich their research experience  Weekly assessment of student progress (mentors and/or coordinator)  Weekly science talks:  REU-level science talks on (radio) Astronomy topics  NRAO “Wednesday lunch talks”  NRAO Science Tea

3. NAC activities during summer  Weekly meetings with students + mentors + any visitors  Always started with “Nag & Brag” sessions  Students provided research updates  Discussed a weekly topic E.g.: Issues faced by minorities and resources available, health and self-care, what makes a good student and a good advisor, impostor syndrome, stereotype threat and role models, etc.  Career development: present different career paths, delivering effective talks, succeeding in school, navigating grad school applications, fellowship & opportunities available, networking & social media, building your CV.  Included special visitors and special talks (live or online)

One of our weekly meetings!

3. NAC activities during summer  Weekly “Homework Assignment” for students  Simple tasks to enhance what we discussed that week  Could be research related or career related  E.g. keeping a research journal, discuss research goals with advisor, find a suitable fellowship to apply to, one of your role models, talk preparation, etc.

3. NAC activities during summer  Diversity speaker series (about once a week from June to July)  Our students gave official VLA tours during the summer  Several “Extracurricular outings”  Dinners, bbqs, gym/pool visits, movies, board games, visit to VLA, and even a camping trip!

Dinner with Dr. Aomawa Shields

Camping: Bandelier National Monument

3. NAC activities during summer  Goal: build cohort bonds, enrich their research experience  Succeeded? YES!  We had a great student cohort, and (from the mentor’s point of view) we think these activities enriched the students research experiences

Successes! – what worked?  Our excellent students!  Weekly meetings kept the cohort cohesive and made the students keep a pace by providing updates in their projects.  All of our special talks and visitors were excellent. Students got valuable insight from meeting directly with our speakers

Successes! – what worked?  Discussions at weekly meetings were useful for both students and mentors  Hands-on experiences (like building a receiver kit to observe Jupiter or the Sun, or VLA tours, weekly homework, etc) were really positive for students in Socorro  The diversity of the Socorro group (mentors & students) was an asset, aim for sustaining that

Challenges – what didn’t work?  Mentor recruiting at our site, particularly from staff  NOTE: Next year, only 2 mentors left. Can we keep the momentum?  Keep balance between sharing potential challenges with life as a scientist, with providing tools to overcome these challenges  Science may not be as welcoming/awesome as this program (but it should be!)… maybe students leave with a sense of “things are great in science/astronomy” & “I will always have this type of mentoring”  Some of the science talks may have been too advanced for our students, but exposure to difficult topics is good… so?  Proper follow up on “Weekly homework” assigned

Room for improvement  Attract good mentors – as we have excellent students!  Balanced workload for mentor in charge of NAC program on a particular site  The expertise available in Engineering and Electronics divisions in Socorro can provide a great complement to the scientific expertise among our staff — we should take MORE advantage of that

Summary  We had a great cohort of students in Socorro!  Thank you Tierra, Elizabeth, Adria, Kevin, Tony!  It is hard work to keep this program running  Thank you Betsy!  From all of the mentor’s perspective, this was an incredibly positive experience!