teaching & mentoring

experience 

I've had the great privilege of teaching and mentoring students inside the classroom and the laboratory throughout my academic career. My teaching experience includes the following:

• PSAT/SAT/ACT Teacher, The Princeton Review (3 years)

• course grader and lecturer, Controlled Release course (1 quarter)

• teaching assistant, Introduction to Bioengineering Problem Solving course (1 quarter)

• instructor, scientific presentations workshop 

• coordinator, Langer lab seminar series (2 years)

• volunteer, Richi Foundation (2 summers)

I have mentored 5 technical associates and 8 undergraduate students in the laboratory, who have secured competitive scholarships, fellowships, and graduate school positions. I am proud of all of my trainees! Highlighted below are the three most recent during my time at MIT:

approach & objectives

My experiences with a chronic disease have underscored for me the mental, emotional, and financial impacts of invisible burdens that students may be navigating. I practice empathy, patience, and gratitude; strive to make myself accessible and approachable; and affirm a "no such thing as a 'stupid' question" policy. My goal is to cultivate an environment where:

• students can learn unapologetically and be authentically themselves

• diverse backgrounds are a strength, and inform learning and research

• mentorship is valued and actively refined - all members can learn from and teach each other

I practice holistic mentoring. Skills that I actively foster in students are the capacity to identify urgent biomedical challenges, curiosity that drives self-learning and exploration, and the scientific independence and thinking to solve these challenges. I work with trainees on their written and oral communication so that they can advocate for themselves and others. Throughout, I encourage students to envision the next stage of their career and create tailored plans to enable their successful transition. 

As an educator, I utilize examples from public health problems and my experiences as a patient to contextualize each class, guiding students with questions such that students interact with the course material, each other, and myself. For example, how might what we learned be used to treat diabetic complications? What are the barriers to its implementation? Risks? I am passionate about teaching and will continue to reflect and adapt my practices throughout my career. 

Throughout my teaching, I will underscore for students that chronic diseases disproportionately affect underrepresented minorities; thus, inclusivity must be considered at all stages of technology development. By internalizing these challenges, students will be positioned to develop interventions that are effective for all patients.