Kaylee Arnold, a doctoral student in the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology, is among 40 young science leaders who will kick off their year as fellows of the Yale Ciencia Academy for Career Development at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Austin, Tex., from February 15-19, 2018.
The Yale Ciencia Academy (YCA) for Career Development provides graduate students with opportunities for mentoring, networking and skills development, and for making contributions to their communities through science outreach. The program is led by the non-profit organization Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR), in collaboration with Yale University.
Fellows must apply to be selected to participate in the year-long, mostly virtual program, which leverages the CienciaPR community—one of the largest networks of Hispanic/Latinx scientists in the world—to connect doctoral students in biological, biomedical, health and behavioral sciences with advisors, mentors and professional development opportunities. Through workshops and virtual conversations with successful scientists, participants can explore different careers, define their academic and career goals, expand their networks, and acquire communication and leadership skills. The program also allows students to have an impact on society through science outreach. In addition, participants attend an in-person meeting at the AAAS conference, where they participate in program-organized workshops and meeting sessions.
“The Yale Ciencia Academy complements traditional graduate training with access to a diverse network of peers, role models and advisors,” said Dr. Giovanna Guerrero-Medina, Principal Investigator and Director of the YCA. “The goal is to help students gain clarity in their academic and professional goals and become the scientists they want to be. We are excited about the talent and promise among this new class of YCA fellows.”
Started in 2016 and funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, YCA has trained 74 young scientists from 36 institutions across the United States and Puerto Rico to date. Over the past two years, YCA fellows have completed 55 outreach projects, including podcasts, school visits, lesson plans for educators, and articles and talks for the general public, impacting nearly 11,000 people. The 2018 class is composed of 40 students from 31 institutions nationwide.
Arnold is a second-year doctoral student in the Odum School’s Interdisciplinary Disease Ecology Across Scales (IDEAS) program. She is interested in understanding the effects of anthropogenic stressors on gut microbiomes of wild animals and how land use change affects pathogen transmission between animals. She is currently studying the gut microbiome of the kissing bug, Rhodnius pallescens, the primary vector of Chagas disease in Panama.
You can meet the full class of 2018 YCA Fellows here.
About Ciencia Puerto Rico
CienciaPR is a nonprofit organization that connects over 8,600 Puerto Rican and Hispanic scientists, students, and educators worldwide through an innovative online platform. By leveraging its community’s collective knowledge, the organization has created thousands of resources to improve science education and help forge the next generation of Hispanic STEM leaders.
Additional Resources:
Learn more about the Yale Ciencia Academy
Check out the Yale Ciencia Academy Blog
Learn more about Ciencia Puerto Rico
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