Outreach
Multiculturalism at the Observatory (MO)
MO is a pioneering outreach program that offers online observing nights in English and Spanish at the Sommers-Bausch Observatory. Other graduate students, including me, lead the program, in which one of the primary goals is to highlight the contribution of Latin American astronomers to the field. In particular, my role was mentoring a student to prepare a public talk (now available on YouTube) and operate the telescopes. You can find more details about MO here.
PACE UC
PACE stands for Programa de Acompañamiento y Acceso Efectivo a la Educación Superior (Accompaniment and Effective Access to Higher Education Program) and is led by the chilean government and partner universities, one of them is the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC).
The program aims to make higher education more equitable by targeting students from underprivileged backgrounds. Based on the student’s participation in courses offered by the program, they can apply to a unique spot to start a career of their choice at UC. This process removes the bias introduced by their high school grades and their performance in selection exams. In that way, access to higher education depends mainly on their participation. My role was helping to design and teach an elective course about astronomy and our place in the universe. I taught this class once a week for three semesters.
In Covid-19 times, I continued taking part in the program, elaborating a video introducing fundamental concepts of astronomy, the importance of developing this science in Chile, and the structure of the undergraduate program at UC. After that, I was interviewed by the program coordinator and students via Instagram Live, where I shared my experience as a female student in a STEM career. These resources are available online on the PACE UC’s YouTube and Instagram accounts.
Planetarium
In 2019 I worked as a guide at the Planetarium of the University of Santiago for about five months. I gave several public talks on different topics, where the audience covered different ages and backgrounds. I also elaborated an unprecedented talk about neutron stars, and I was responsible for training the other guides working at the planetarium. In that way, they could offer that talk after I left.