I was invited to write a blog post for the Ecological Society of America about my recent experiences in Washington, D.C. with my fellow Graduate Student Policy Award winners. I had an amazing time and wanted to share my post with you. -Anna
[Anna writes...] As a fifth year Ph.D. student, I spend a lot of time thinking about my future. I adore science and have loved being a part of the ecology community, but working as a researcher has always left me wanting something more. While conducting my graduate research, I’ve come to value my distractions in teaching biology to non-majors, volunteering at science outreach events, and writing for public audiences. I’ve found that I both enjoy and excel at communicating science to diverse audiences, and I hope to make a career of it. I applied to the ESA GSPA in hopes of getting my feet wet in a new sector of science communication: science policy. I joked to my friends that this 3-day DC visit would be the deciding factor for whether my career ambitions would lie in policy rather than a more traditional public science outreach role. I was not disappointed.
[Anna writes...] As a fifth year Ph.D. student, I spend a lot of time thinking about my future. I adore science and have loved being a part of the ecology community, but working as a researcher has always left me wanting something more. While conducting my graduate research, I’ve come to value my distractions in teaching biology to non-majors, volunteering at science outreach events, and writing for public audiences. I’ve found that I both enjoy and excel at communicating science to diverse audiences, and I hope to make a career of it. I applied to the ESA GSPA in hopes of getting my feet wet in a new sector of science communication: science policy. I joked to my friends that this 3-day DC visit would be the deciding factor for whether my career ambitions would lie in policy rather than a more traditional public science outreach role. I was not disappointed.
