Biology Connections Living Learning Community (LLC)
I intentionally seek out service opportunities that enable me to open doors for students to reach their educational and career goals. From 2018 to 2022, I was one of two faculty leads for the Biology Connections LLC, where I provided opportunities for students to serve the New River Valley (NRV) community. For example, we collaborated with the NRV Master Naturalists to remove invasive species from Stadium Woods on Virginia Tech’s campus. We continue to participate in stewardship events in Wildwood Park, where we work with the NRV community to remove trash from Connelly’s Run and its surrounding watershed. As a learning community, we also do fun things such as hike to Cascade Falls, watch movies in the Planetarium, or kayak on the New River with RU Outdoors! I integrate these kinds of volunteer experiences and fun into my ecology courses to highlight the importance of developing a scientifically literate general population through the citizen scientist programs, as well as build community. I gladly shared our successes with faculty and leaders in the Artis College of Science and Technology to convert Biology Connections to a college-wide STEM LLC!
I intentionally seek out service opportunities that enable me to open doors for students to reach their educational and career goals. From 2018 to 2022, I was one of two faculty leads for the Biology Connections LLC, where I provided opportunities for students to serve the New River Valley (NRV) community. For example, we collaborated with the NRV Master Naturalists to remove invasive species from Stadium Woods on Virginia Tech’s campus. We continue to participate in stewardship events in Wildwood Park, where we work with the NRV community to remove trash from Connelly’s Run and its surrounding watershed. As a learning community, we also do fun things such as hike to Cascade Falls, watch movies in the Planetarium, or kayak on the New River with RU Outdoors! I integrate these kinds of volunteer experiences and fun into my ecology courses to highlight the importance of developing a scientifically literate general population through the citizen scientist programs, as well as build community. I gladly shared our successes with faculty and leaders in the Artis College of Science and Technology to convert Biology Connections to a college-wide STEM LLC!
Left to right: removing invasive plants from Stadium Woods (Fall 2018), visiting Cascade Falls (Fall 2019), and preparing to kayak on the New River (Fall 2020).