Senior Year: Semester 1

1. UA/NASA Space Grant: Space Grant has provided me the opportunity to work with a professor here at UA on a project of interest AND getting paid for it. I am working with the energetic Barron Orr of the Office of Arid Lands Studies. Barron is an extension specialist which means he takes all of the great technology and research from the U out into the Arizona community. We work primarily with geospatial information systems and its application in community asset mapping and invasive species. So far this has been a great experience and I only expect it to get even better. You can find my listing here.

2. Honors Civic Engagement Teams (HCET): This organization run out of the Honors College assembles multidisciplinary groups of students to work with local non-profit organizations. Our teams work on projects that would not otherwise be addressed. This exchange provides students with real world experience with non-profits and provides organizations with able and innovative minds. Some of our past & present partners include: WorldCare, Sister Cities groups, Casa de los Ninos and many others. The Wildcat included us in an opinion's piece last semester that can be found here.

3. Economics Society: President for one more year. Our club puts on exam reviews for Econ 200 students each semester. The money we make from reviews is used to hold meetings - free pizza and soda provided - that feature speakers of interest to our current economics majors. Speakers are usually faculty members presenting their research or former students painting a picture of what they have done with an econ degree since their graduation.

4. Honors Thesis (Part I): I am planning on making my thesis an elaboration of the rural electrification using renewables policy I produced for my Truman Scholarship application. I plan to incorporate HOMER software into my work.

5. Preceptor for International Studies 250: Being a preceptor (teaching assistant), for the Introduction to International Studies class (a core class for my international studies major) has been a dream of mine since freshman year. Preceptors attend lecture with students and then lead small breakout discussions on Friday. My discussion section is an honors section and meets at the lovely hour of 8am. Over coffee, we meet and discuss the week's issue of The Economist. We opine and argue for fifty minutes. It's wonderful to have students ask to meet for coffee and see that they look up to me - a senior who has traveled Latin America - as I looked up to my preceptors some 3 years ago.