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Education & Outreach

WinSPIRE (Women and underrepresented genders in STEM Promoting Inclusion in Research Experiences) Program: WinSPIRE is a six-week long paid summer internship program for woman and non-binary high school students run by graduate students & postdocs at UNC-Chapel Hill. 

Wayana has been involved with the WinSPIRE Program since 2019 in a variety of roles:

Co-Chair: September 2020 - August 2021

  • Oversaw and delegated tasks to a group of 18 volunteers and 7 sub-teams to run a six-week-long grad-student led STEM research internship for 11 woman and non-binary high school students, which was virtual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

  • Developed standardized pre- and post- program student surveys to measure the impact of the program on student’s college plans, career-goals, self-efficacy, and STEM identity

  • Revamped lesson planning documents for graduate student mentors to better suit a virtual learning environment

  • Problem-solved Zoom and internet-related technical challenges, including providing students with mobile hotspots

  • Formalized organizational team structure and continuity by working alongside the other leadership to develop guiding documents and deadlines for sub-teams

  • Conceptualized and co-led a water quality-focused virtual activity with a hands-on component for a group of 5 students

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WinSPIRE 2019 Cohort

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Research Mentor Coordinator, Team Lead: September 2021 - August 2022

  • Identified and delegated tasks to the research mentor coordination sub-team of three people

  • Communicated and collaborated with other sub-team leads, including ensuring laptop access for students and coordinating mentor participation in student practice interviews

  • Designed and led the research-mentor portion of the WinSPIRE lesson-planning workshop

Research Mentor Coordinator: September 2019 - August 2020

  • Assessed WinSPIRE Research Mentor applications and dispersed and collected background check and lesson planning paperwork

  • Oversaw the transition of the program from in-person to virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic, including coordinating program schedule changes with mentors and their supervisors, chaperoning Zoom meetings, and assisting mentors in converting in-person research projects to virtual research projects

Website/Social Media Manager: September 2018 - August 2020; August 2022 - August 2023

  • (2018 - 2020) Created and maintained the WinSPIRE website on the Wix platform

  • (2022 - present) Advertised WinSPIRE events and highlighted other local opportunities for DEI work and education in the Chapel Hill on Instagram, Twitter, and the WinSPIRE Website

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Teaching, Professional Development, & Mentorship

Teaching

Instructor of Record, Water in Our World (GEOL 324), UNC-Chapel Hill:  August 2022 - December 2022

  • Crafted course materials/assessments and taught a 55-person introductory hydrology course

  • Supervised a graduate student TA, who instructed the lab-section for the course

Guest Lecturer, Water in Our World (GEOL 324), UNC-Chapel Hill: November 2021

  • Taught two weeks of courses focusing on flooding, in particular flood drivers, risk and vulnerability assessment, and mitigation strategies

Teaching Assistant, Water in Our World (GEOL 324), UNC-Chapel Hill: Fall 2019​

  • Instructed two lab sections (~18 students total) of Water in Our World, including updating lecture slides, grading assignments, and holding office hours

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Mentoring

Advisor, Undergraduate Honors Contract Project: August 2022 - Present

  • Advised an undergraduate student researching patterns and trends in precipitation

Research Mentor, WinSPIRE: June 2019-July 2019

  • Mentored a high school student researching lake level variations after Hurricane Florence hit coastal North Carolina

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Professional Development & Relevant Education Coursework

Mental Health First Aid Training, UNC-Chapel Hill: November 2018 & June 2022

  • Think 'First Aid Training', but for mental health emergencies!

  • Participated in the program in November 2018 with my lab group and then worked with the department to bring the program in to provide training for the department as a whole

Student, Principles and Methods of Teaching Earth Science (GEOL 412), UNC-Chapel Hill: Fall 2020​

  • Constructed and presented a 20-minute virtual learning module about groundwater movement on Adobe Spark (now Adobe Express) for students in the Water in Our World course at UNC (link here)

  • Created a 2-class-period lesson plan about flooding and environmental justice for an introductory hydrology class

  • Learned about lesson planning, active learning techniques, formative assessment, and teaching to diverse groups of students.

Morehead Science Impactor, IMPACTS Program, NC Science Festival: Fall 2019 - Spring 2020

  • Created and taught a lesson about water quality to a group of middle school students in rural North Carolina via the SciMatch Program

  • Participated in two trainings about leading informal STEM classroom instruction and STEM community events

Earth Educators Rendezvous Conference

Co-Lead, Managing Stress In Graduate School Round Table: July 2021​

  • Organized and led a discussion about managing stress in graduate school

  • Compiled mental health resources to share with attendees

Participant, 2YC Whole Student Mentoring Workshop: July 2022

  • Learned about mentoring techniques and strategies, specifically focused on 2 year college students

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