 Hello everyone and welcome to Meet the Experts and powering yourself on your science journey. We are just waiting a couple minutes for folks to join and get connected but we are so excited to talk to you all today and introduce you to our speaker Marisa Vara and while we're waiting for folks to join we actually have, we want to hear from you, we have a word cloud question for you about what are you passionate about? We want to know what are you passionate about because we're going to be talking a bit about different STEM careers today as well as how that connects to your passions. I think we're going to go ahead and get started today. So we today are going to be doing Meet the Experts, empowering yourself on your science journey and I'm Katie Wilson with the UCAR Center for Science Education and this is Meet the Experts. So we have folks joining today from all over the world. We have folks that are coming to us from here in Boulder, Colorado where we are at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. We have folks that are connecting from Turkey, from India, from Tanzania, from Florida, from Louisiana, Virginia, all over the country here in the U.S. So we are so excited to welcome you to Meet the Experts. For those of you who haven't seen it before or participated before, Meet the Experts is a monthly Q&A where we connect you to experts in the weather, climate, and earth sciences and we are so excited to connect you with our expert today, Mari Savara. I'm going to introduce her in just a moment but before we do that, I also want to share that this month's Meet the Expert as well as next week's Meet the Expert are part of the worldwide teaching on climate and justice and so we have today is actually the main event day for the worldwide teaching climate and justice. There are events happening all over the world today and in the coming days. We have a second event happening next week on Wednesday, April 5th that we invite you to come participate in as well but I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the event organizers who have a quick welcome video to welcome us all and bring us into that climate teaching event. Welcome to the worldwide teaching on climate and justice. You are joining tens of thousands of students at hundreds of schools across the planet in learning and thinking about the work each of you can do now and in your future to repair the climate and lead a just transition to a clean energy future. Your role like each and will mobilize the power of educators and students and empower a generation of fighting to stabilize the climate and advance climate and justice. We all need to get comfortable talking about climate all the time the teaching helps us do that. The worldwide teaching is equal to organizing events on campus or community on or around March 29th, 2023. The key to successful teaching is relying on home-grown talent, not outside experts. We all need to step up. The biggest threat to your future is thinking that somehow someone else is going to stop the warming. This is the great work of our generation. We hope this teaching will help you find your own pathway to repairing the climate. All right everyone so this is just one of the events as part of that worldwide teaching and today what we are going to be doing is we are going to be talking with Marisa Vara who is a higher education specialist here at the UCAR Center for Science Education. Now throughout this presentation I want to encourage you all to type to us in the chat or use the Q&A function in this webinar to ask your questions and you can ask questions at any time based on anything you hear or see during the presentation or anything you want to share in response to what we're talking about today. So this is going to be an interactive presentation we'll have some questions for you and also time for questions from all of you so please feel free to if you haven't already type in the chat to let us know where you're watching from today we would love to say hello and know where everyone is joining us so type that in the chat and also feel free to enter any questions you have for us at any time during the presentation. There is also closed captioning available through zoom 2 that you can turn on and off if you would like that. So without further ado I'm going to go ahead and bring on our speaker welcome Marisa. Hi thank you. So Marisa is a higher education specialist here at the UCAR Center for Science Education she is a wonderful teammate of ours and Marisa can you tell us a bit more about what do you do as a higher education specialist? Yeah so my job is to be helping the students undergrads mostly and that are historically marginalized communities find their career path and help them guide them through their career path give them advice support them mentor them find good mentors for them really just kind of help them grow in the person that they are and in the STEM careers themselves. So you're kind of helping people find their path or empowering them on their path to their STEM careers? Yes so that's what I hope is that I get them figuring out what they're really passionate about what they're really interested in and then they connect all the dots together and then hopefully they follow their passion and go on with their careers that way and then another part of my position is really wanting to not only allow the students to find their career paths and get there but I don't want them to go into an environment that maybe isn't the most welcoming for them so a big portion of my career or my position is to really help the the culture and the environment within the STEM fields to to be more inclusive of all people so it's a mix of both of those things. Yeah so you need both of those things right it's so important and especially creating that healthy environment for everyone going into the STEM fields and so we're going to get into that a bit more later but we want to turn it over to our audience now and find out I know we have a variety of folks registered that are going to be at different stages in their career path and in their science journeys so we're curious to learn from you about what kind of job do you want to have or do you have right now so what kind of work do you do so is it connected to the STEM field or not so we want to kind of know from you so type that in the chat if you can share with us what kind of job do you want to have or what kind of job do you have now and we're talking a bit about STEM careers those science technology engineering math or those science jobs and so a lot of people might think about science jobs just being a researcher or a scientist right are there other types of jobs that might be absolutely yes I'm an educator but I still consider myself a scientist I still work in the science fields I'm still very much a STEM professional but as an educator I get to do a mix of using my science passion and what I'm interested in and helping those students in their education in their pathways so that's one example I was a teacher before I was a science teacher that's still in the STEM fields you can also be a park ranger looking and guiding people through walking trails and things like that and learning about the ecosystems around that's a STEM career there's a wide variety in the federal research labs academia all sorts of different types of STEM jobs out there so yeah and I think one thing too that I like especially through this meet the experts programs we get to do is we get to meet so many different types of jobs right that are related to the STEM fields right so here at the national center for atmosphere research we have aircraft mechanics we have chefs we have lawyers we have you know custodial staff we have facilities maintenance there are all sorts of jobs that are supporting STEM or working in STEM fields that I think are so important and so powerful for us to remember so let's see what we have from our audience here we have a research administrator in STEM with a Spanish literature and Latin American studies background we have PhD students focusing on marine carbon cycle and in the future they're hoping to work on marine carbon dioxide removal as a climate change solution that's that's super awesome that's awesome um so um thank you everybody for sharing that I want to take a second to look back to our first question when we're all getting started about what are we passionate about so let's go and pull up that word cloud responses and let's see what some of our audience is passionate about oh I like the helping my community that's also something I'm very passionate about and I think my job suits that passion really well climate justice accessible STEM education I really like that too I like to do themes I'm seeing in here of my kids and family right so having those things that you're passionate about and your personal life and your family and thinking about how those might connect to climate justice climate action to climate science right including everyone accessible education connecting people human connections a lot of connections in here too I'm saying and so I think when they were going to talk a little bit Marisa is going to share is a little bit about what she's learned about connecting what you're passionate about to your careers or what job you want to have in STEM or even if it's not a job in STEM maybe it's a hobby in STEM maybe you're being community science and citizen science and that kind of work as well um and so science can be accessible for a lot in lots of different ways there's multiple different ways to do science it's not just being in a research lab yeah um so with that I'm going to step off camera about Marisa I'm curious so we're talking a lot about like STEM and science and that kind of stuff were you always interested in science were you kind of a science kid I was very much a science kid growing up yeah um so I grew up in a small town in Texas um U of T Texas with my beautiful family here that you can see um and I grew up in the country kind of it was a big huge amount of land that I could just go and explore and really be curious and really step into my curiosity um so I would go and like crack open rocks or I would climb up a tree and look at the different types of leaves or like lay down on the grass and stare up into the clouds and see it moving and being like oh wow clouds move and the world churns and this is so interesting and so I was very interested in the environment and the elements that were surrounding me however I always assumed um that the only way I could do science was to be in some sort of biological field um so I thought it would be like a health science or a animal kind of medical science field so veterinarian or doctor were really the only two things that I thought were um options for me um as a kid so I had no idea that there was an actual science out there for our system sciences and the environment and climate and things like that even those were things I was passionate about I thought I just had to be in the biological science to do them um but it wasn't until I joined GeoForce which is an outreach program in um that focused on south texas rural south texas and urban area of texas so the houston area and then the san Antonio area where my hometown is at um they recruited a whole bunch of students from lower income schools and kind of historically marginalized groups as well um to really get them interested and started getting interested in the geosciences so I got recruited my eighth grade year and started that summer in the program it's a four-year program um so every summer we went to a different spot so there are spots in the dc area there are spots in the grand canyon area um florida was one of them and organ was one of them um but it wasn't until the organ spot when I went to go visit organ that I was like hooked on it um before it wasn't bad it wasn't interesting it was just like I just assumed it was just rocks um didn't realize the connections that earth sciences have with the environment and the climate um until I went to organ and then I saw the different types of environmental changes and climate changes going from the mountains and the volcanoes there to the coastline and that drastic change in climate between those two areas and then it clicked oh I can do environmental climate change within the geosciences and I can have a career outside and be outdoors which I love doing and really kind of invest in this so I ended up going to undergrad because geoforce is sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin um the Jackson School of Geosciences I ended up going there for my undergrad um and I was very excited because I got in and it was my first choice and it was what I was thinking that I wanted to do um but then I got kind of a um reality check I guess you could say um I'm a first generation college student um my parents didn't go to college um so I struggled a lot in my first two years there I didn't um I didn't have the I just I wasn't had I didn't have the the college prep that maybe some other of my peers had um I wasn't really great in this in the basics of the science and math um I wasn't able to really fully understand those big lecture classes and then trying to like understand what they were teaching me I just ended up realizing I learned in a different way I got through those most of the time I went to a community college and took those classes at a community college but once I got through those basics and I kind of got into the geoscience classes a little bit more I thrived and I was like connecting all the dots and it made sense what they were talking to me about in chemistry finally and like it all just started connecting and it wasn't until like probably my third year in college that I was like oh okay I'm learning a little bit differently than maybe my peers were learning and I see more things in a big picture kind of sense and the little details need to connect to the big picture for my brain to understand it um and having more like hands-on related things so all the labs I did grade on things like that so um it was really interesting to realize that I just wasn't a typical learner in undergrad and it was an adventure ended up taking five years instead of the traditional four years um just to really understand everything and then I wanted to get my grades back up and then kind of graduate and move forward with that. Yeah it sounds like I mean I think that's a that's a common story I think we hear right it's a very different environment in high school that is going into undergrad and there's a lot of learning that you do about yourself um and about the rest of the world in college that maybe you is going to be a different environment than in high school and so were there any particular things that you learned about yourself or oh maybe ways or resources that you learned those things about yourself that might be helpful to other folks who are now in an undergrad? Yeah so I um I mentioned that hands-on stuff was really important to me so doing the land the labs was a good way for me to understand the material that I was learning um one of my experiences was a field experience um if you see there um I'm on a boat um swiping off some some mud of a collection that we collected for a field campaign that I or field camp that I was on um there my um the group that I was in ended up being like a whole bunch of different little groups that worked as a team to solve a big problem and it made just complete sense I like thrived in that environment I was like oh I'm a team worker I know how to like I know what my part is I can make sure that I can get that accomplished and then I can see how that fits in with the bigger pitchers and I just got really excited and really invested in the fact that like this was how I learned you know and so it was just really just like oh I'm I can do this career I can be a good scientist in this field and it's I just need to do it with an environment that is more of a team environment and a collaborative environment that's kind of where I thrive at personally so um it was just learning those things about myself that oh okay you're great at this you know you're not a bad scientist but you um you need to have a different type of environment to really help you and support you in this career and do you feel like you had some folks that could support you on undergrad um to kind of navigate that or find those things out about yourself too or were you kind of figuring that out a lot on your own it was a little bit of a mixture really um I had a really hard time asking for help in undergrad um I thought that me asking for help would be a weakness um it would be kind of like a I can if I ask for help that means I can't do this that means I'm not cut out for this I had that mindset for some reason in my head that huge amount of imposter syndrome going through undergrad um and so I had a really hard time asking for help so a lot of it was me persevering like you can just keep going you'll keep going it'll happen it'll work you just keep working hard and you'll get there but then it was a realization like I can't do this on my own there's no way I can do this on my own my parents are great wonderful supporters but they don't know this experience either being again a first generation so it was really tapping into my mentors from geoforce um that I had there that really kind of helped me understand that like okay you need to learn how to work in a college atmosphere like here's a little bit more on that college prep kind of mindset of things um so it was really finding the mentors and the support system within that um environment that helped me be like okay I can I can trust these people to ask for help and that they won't judge me that I'm not capable of doing any of this work and then on top of it I can I can kind of grow myself in that way yes I'm still pretty stubborn in that sense where I am pretty resilient and push through a lot of things that I probably should ask for more help for but um realizing that asking for help is totally okay and it's totally totally a reasonable thing to do and it does not mean you're not good at whatever you're doing yeah I think it's a lesson that a lot of us can can remind ourselves of right of that there are people around us who can help if we reach out or especially in like climate science and in the climate movement right like it takes all of us working together on teams which you realize you have to you know thrive in and you know learning from each other and asking for help is kind of how we're gonna move through this climate right yes exactly yeah so what so so you learn a lot of things about kind of yourself and you learn and how you thrive in undergrad and from that point like what did you think you wanted to do next after your undergrad degree I had no idea um I grad school was always in the back of my head it was always something that I thought I would do but I just I wasn't sure if I fully wanted to commit to to doing that I did undergrad research I really enjoyed it but I just didn't know if I wanted to continue on into grad school um so I ended up getting an internship at the Texas Commission in Environmental Quality there in Texas um it was working for the Environmental Agency there so I was in the remedial area um and I was working there all summer long and then I got an opportunity to go on a research um vessel in Antarctica in the Scotia Sea so I said yes to that so I kind of was just like I don't really know what I want to do but I'm going to explore every option so I I stayed in the environmental sector because I was like well I do want to do something that seems um like I'm making a difference right so I've always been invested in the climate always wanted to help the earth and the world be a better place so I've always wanted to do something climate related so I thought the environmental sector was the best place for me um personally my school is a big um oil and gas school so I was like I don't think I want to do oil and gas it doesn't seem like it fits kind of my personal core values and morals so I went to the environmental sector thinking that I would help in that aspect of being in the remedial area and helping clean out the earth kind of thing um and then I learned I didn't like it um I didn't like necessarily being a regulator I felt like I wasn't really making that bigger than impact that I thought I did and then having that research experience that I had I was like I really do still love research really do still love that kind of aspect of understanding a problem and going kind of really deep into it and really trying to figure out a solution about it um my research was in paleo climate so I did which is study of past climates um so I did a lot of research on understanding past climates and how that could help with this current climate that we're in um so after staying at tcq for two years I was like okay I tried it environmental sector is not for me personally um and I think I should go back to grad school so I ended up going back to grad school gotcha and um what did you go what was your kind of goal going back to grad school what were you studying like what did you want to do with the degree yeah so I still continue doing paleo climate research um and I studied corals um actually in the um in veracruz mexico which is um off the gulf gulf of mexico so my research advisor in that group was all very much in the gulf of mexico region um my research was more about kind of so corals are a proxy a climate proxy that helps you kind of determine what the climate was back in time because they're so sensitive to the environment that they're in um they're really good climate tracers um so I did geochemistry which surprisingly I struggled in chemistry in undergrad so much I ended up doing it as a research because again once it clicked it clicked um so I used geochemistry on my corals to understand some trace elements and some oxygen isotopes and things like that to really understand the sea surface temperatures for when they were alive um and helped kind of put together reconstruct is what we call it a climate at that area um to determine what the climate was and then see the differences from there to today and what differences there were what maybe environmental impacts have affected the climate from then to now kind of situation climate detective yeah it really is mm-hmm yeah so I loved it I thought it was great it was wonderful research um I really enjoyed that aspect of things um and I like knowing about these things and kind of putting things together kind of like an investigator like you said um but unfortunately the environment in grad school just wasn't um supportive for me again I really thrive on that team and collaborative kind of environment my advisor was not the best match for me mentor wise mentor mentee wise we just didn't um see eye to eye in that situation and then I had some really difficult um um problems with the environment that I was in um it just I was one of the few and I'm sure lots of people have heard somebody say something like that was one of the few in that environment I was um I just didn't feel like I had support not necessarily from my peers there was a certain some peers that just weren't supportive but there were a group that were supportive but the general um support and supporting of my professors the people that you thought would be would understand the struggles that you were going through especially as a woman I had a woman advisor like having that kind of perspective of like oh you went through this so you should know kind of thing and then wondering realizing that it wasn't the right thing that they went through kind of situation um so I know I'm beating around the bush I had a lot of um unfortunately races kind of remarks and microaggressions and um it really affected my mental health at that time and I was just not able I realized that that that pathway just wasn't the right pathway for my academic trajectory and I was just like I don't think I can do this anymore and then I kind of started volunteering more with like outreach groups and under and like working with more of this local student programs and stuff like that and getting involved in helping education and outreach aspects of things and I was like I really enjoy doing this this makes me happy it's not like research did make me happy but that environment made me so exhausted that I was like this in general is not making me happy I want to go and like be an educator education and really kind of tap into that kind of aspect of of what I've always was passionate about because of Geoforce because of all these experiences I've had before this time um that I was just like I don't think that academia is for me I don't think that it's for my mental health I don't think it's something that I want to continue doing forward in that aspect I do want to help people in academia so that doesn't happen to them but I don't think I want to be in that place anymore yeah so so and I'm I'm so sorry that you had that experience and I think it's the experience that unfortunately happens a lot right and it's I think it's such a powerful thing for you to realize that there are different ways you can follow your passions right you discovered this new passion in education and outreach and also you took what you learned as unfortunate as it was in grad school and it sounds like you turned that into this amazing career that you have now yeah so what what what what was that like kind of what were those steps that brought what brought you here to NCAR as a higher education specialist yeah so I after grad school I um geoforced called I was always in contact with geoforced geoforces um kind of what I would imagine people who are um alumni to other outreach or other programs like that they're always going to be supportive of those of those students um so they've always been supportive of me so they were like oh you wanted your education outreach come behind the scenes learn about the logistics with us spend the summer with us and hang out with us all summer long so I did that all summer long I was so thankful it gave me kind of an opportunity to leave an environment that wasn't good for me and I got another kind of way of of exploring a new career path that I wasn't that I was like oh this is something I can do kind of thing um and then after that I ended up teaching at my local high school for a little while um I taught high school science there environmental science actually so like trying to learn how to communicate science in a way with people that aren't I've always communicated science with people who are passionate about science but communicating about science with a whole bunch of high schoolers who honestly just want to graduate and get out of their kind of situation was a different way of communicating because it was trying to relate more to them than than maybe somebody who was already really interested in science kind of situation so I learned a different communication style but then I also unfortunately learned the inequalities of the education system um and how maybe it's not um very equitable along all different types of groups and all different even within the organization my environmental science class was um not a pre-ap class right so all the pre-ap students were were a different way different type than the students that I had and it wasn't that it was bad it was just that they needed to be taught in a different way and I related to that because I need to be taught in a different way um so it was just kind of like learning different learning behaviors and learning styles and really kind of just being embraced in all of that and kind of forced to learn that aspect of of your way of communicating kind of situation and then I got a job at the National Science Foundation um after my teaching position and I learned that um my perspectives that I had from undergrad and my teaching perspectives and my working in the in the education space so far um really was in it was uh was a pro working at at the National Science Foundation because they were looking for somebody to provide these kind of perspectives they were talking about it but they didn't really have somebody who went through it kind of situation um so I provided that perspective and I kind of worked on there and I learned that I could blend my education and science passion in with the diversity equity and inclusion initiatives that they were trying to move forward in that space and I ended up just kind of blending those two together and just working in that space and um I ended up getting recruited from there to NCAR UCAR working for the source program which is significant opportunities for atmospheric research and sciences um here at UCAR so I do that program as well as I go on talks in different organizations to different scientific conferences and things like that talking about DEI related work and initiatives and really kind of moving forward in that space too within not only our organization but the community as a whole the scientific community as a whole um so that's what that's what got me here so far and I really enjoy it I love doing what I do it's really it's igniting all my passions into one and I kind of fell into this career path but I I think now looking back I would have always gone here like I don't think I think all my pathways whichever one I would have took would have always like led me to where I'm at right now and you kind of started with like um realizing with geosciences and connecting it to climate and you know doing paleo climate research and wanting to kind of change the world and help the world through climate science do you feel like you get to do that in your role now yeah so originally I wanted to be a professor and kind of have my own research group and do climate research and help students with that aspect of things um and while I don't have my own research lab and I'm not doing climate research per se I do think that I'm helping students understand how to bridge those connections together because most of the students who come have to have um they have a STEM background or STEM interests of some sort and then um we do atmospheric science research here at this organization so they like to connect whatever they're passionate about in the STEM fields to the atmospheric research realm and then they can see those connections and that's what I think the beauty of is earth system sciences and climate in general is that it's not just one space not one um yeah space uh one sphere of the of the earth system that is impacted it's the geosphere the hydrosphere the um atmosphere all of them are connected with each other and interact with each other and I get to help students understand that aspect of things and they start connecting things to not only just the atmospheric sciences but the societal impacts the human impacts and and how they can maybe make a difference within their own community and bring that back to their own space in their own place and understand how to really make those things move forward and I have a part in that and if seeing them like light up with the passion that they have for for the research in their science is just really an amazing part of my job and it's really rewarding so um I love that I get to help them with that and then I get to help train the next generation of scientists to to do this work like that video said earlier this is this is for the generation of science to really make those climate impacts and those climate solutions that we're all hoping for and what's the what's the power that you see in making STEM and making climate science more accessible more welcoming to individuals from sort of historically marginalized communities right yeah yeah so in in general most of the climate almost of the people who are impacted by climate change and the the really severe climate events are historically marginalized groups and if we can get their perspectives they are doing this they probably were born into these situations so they see this every day their perspectives are way beyond what a scientist who's been studying it for eight years has because they've been doing it their whole lives right so I think bringing in their perspectives bringing in what they can offer from their community and their space and really giving them that space and a voice to to do that science to do that study like we should just stand out of their way why are we creating all these barriers and these things to make them not feel welcomed in this field like we should lessen those barriers we should let them do that I bet you we would solve this solution a long time ago if it was more inclusive a while back but that's my personal perspective um I think it's it's it's important to have those perspectives it's important to have that mindset and it's truly just the right thing to do like why are we being elitist and not allowing everybody into a field that is impacting the entire world it impacts every person we're all a part of that exactly so we should all be working we should all be working on that together yes well let's see if we have some questions from the audience now I have a few more questions for you Marisa but I want to make sure if we have some questions here to feel free to type those in the chat or type those in the q and a if you have questions for Marisa before we wrap up today so feel free to start typing those in Marisa I'm wondering if you can share with me you give um you help students on their path right and so do you have any kind of go-to advice or general tips for any students who are watching today and persuading today yeah um trust your gut trust your instincts um if there's something that just doesn't feel right wherever you're working at if it's doesn't seem like it's the best environment for you and you have a way to move forward then try to get out of it as much as if you if you can I know that it can be difficult in some circumstances and it's not the easiest um so I'm not saying that it's definitely something that everyone can do kind of situation but for instance my example of grad school I could have continued on doing research that summer and my come maybe going to a phd um but I had an out with my geo force colleagues who were like if you want to do this let's do this kind of thing so I took my out and then it's landed me here so far so I think it's possible um it doesn't always work out I'm not saying that it's a thing but you know yourself better than anybody so if it's not something that's healthy for yourself then you should probably second guess and and take a step back and really reevaluate the situation and if it's a place that maybe you can leave then I would recommend it yeah I know there was a comment on the um in the passion question we asked folks about of self-care right so especially in climate work where it can feel overwhelming or exhausting um that having taking that time or making sure that you center yourself and giving yourself the space and the energy and the care and great being in a safe and passion in a joy filled environment where you can do that work is going to be so important yes exactly yes always take care of yourself your mental health is so important you can't save the world if you yourself are not feeling like you are um stable in that that space um how about um I'm curious um if you have any advice you said the other piece right the other part it's not just all on the students right right you maybe even more so it's on the institutions and organizations in the schools to create a welcoming environment um what tips um since you do this work every day what kind of tips and advice do you have for um professors for schools for organizations for bosses for teachers to create that welcoming environment right yes I 100 it's not on the students this is not something that they they shouldn't have to have to figure this all out on their own they they should have an environment that allows them to do that and my first thing would be to just be kind to each other but that's easier said than done especially when people don't realize that they're not being kind um so setting those expectations in organizations and institutions of of what they expect their students to do or what they expect their faculty to be like with students um creating those environments with agreements community agreements kind of situations um but then having accountability for those agreements so if somebody doesn't follow through if somebody isn't following those agreements then maybe um what work what's going to be the action to make sure that they are accountable for that situation so it's a mix of things right so it's being kind and just being human because everybody's human everybody goes through struggles and just realizing that kind of aspect of things but then on top of it really sticking to those those community agreements that you make with your group and understanding that it's if you're going to do this then you're going to have to kind of make everybody accountable not just the students which is just definitely not just a student situation um but faculty leadership all sorts of different types of people need to do that so yeah so approaching it from that kind of systemic change and collective action approach too right so we can create an environment where students don't have to right advocate or protect themselves right and then they just feel like they can belong and they can bring their whole identities their perspectives their unique perspectives into this exactly we can do the work and people can follow their passions wherever that leads them yes exactly that like it's it's not it should not definitely be on the students it should be a a whole system working together to really make it a better inclusive environment yeah so we have a question here we have a question of what is your one advice for next generation on how to be how to be less impact on our earth and actions to take now so do you have any thoughts on like for the next generation what are actions that they can take to make less of an impact on our earth and take action now yeah um i would say hmm that's a good question one two it would be um just kind of understanding what your what you can control right so a lot of the a lot of the impacts that are happening in our in our system right now our climate our systems our space our our science system sorry um a lot of the problems are things that are happening here are not necessarily something that one individual can do but you can do what you can within the or within yourself right um so it would be um working on like recycling and doing things like that yes those are important and i think those are things that people are doing now but being mindful of those things early on i think it's very helpful and like understanding that um that this is our space and just like loving and trusting the world that we're in like it's mother earth so kind of give it the love that you would your mother kind of situation or your family member or somebody that you really love and care for so as long as you love it the way that that is happening and i think it will be okay but the real problem is probably more of those kind of big companies and then street kind of people who which in that sense getting into policy doing science policy is a good way of doing things you know not just staying in the research realm of things but really combining that research space with policy or with education and educating the new younger generations and really connecting science to the different aspects of things um would be a good way to kind of influence that in in the space also being able to talk in a related relative way not trying to yeah the communications piece piece is really important i've been in conversations with with people congressmen and other types of people in my previous work um where if i discuss climate change in a way that was um understandable to them like okay what's happening in your actual space right now your environment your community and they're talking about um their cattle not being able to walk on the on their grassland in the winter time because of the winter isn't being frozen like the grass isn't being frozen over um so they're getting stuck in mud and not really having like a good environment i was like well that's climate change that's what that is so let's figure out how to like make that solution like wouldn't you want a solution because your cattle is really important to you kind of finding those values and connecting over values exactly and local relatable impacts and that kind of thing yeah yeah and i would i would add too like since we're talking about careers and things like that remembering that um that not one person i think you said this like not one person is going to fix everything right and not one of us individually can fix everything but every job no matter if it's a STEM job or a job in the arts which are so important for climate communication um but every job can be a climate job right so whatever job you are whatever you're passionate about again following those passions of hobbies or things like that think about how that job or that passion connects to climate change and what are actions that you can take there or policies you can advocate for from those positions or from those different social justice movements that you're involved with or things like that because climate as you're saying for systems like we're all part of it we're all it's all interconnected yes so there are things there to explore and little actions that we can all take and all of us are taking actions in all the places where we are that's where we can start moving yes exactly yeah wonderful well we are actually about at the end of our time i don't see another question in here just yet i think we feel free if you would like to reach out to us with more questions from Marisa you'll get a follow-up email tomorrow that will have her email address um that you can reach out with more questions also if folks are interested in getting involved with the source program how could they find out more about that Marisa yeah so our website source.ucard.edu um we'll have all of that information there um our applications for this summer is closed but we're open around the november-december timeframe for new applicants and then it closes the deadlines usually in the first week of february so we're always looking for awesome potential protege's is what we call them um so if you're interested in the source program at all please contact me or my colleague could be a tiaro awesome thank you so much Marisa for talking to us today thank you everybody for joining us um from all over i want to invite all of you to join us next week for our next meet the experts which is also part of the climate teaching so next week we have meet the experts youth action for collective climate justice on april 5th we have an 11 a.m mountain time as well as a 6 p.m mountain time where we'll be talking to three different youth of voices in the climate justice movement so we would love to have you come join us for that you can sign up for that on our website here and the link is in the chat as well but with that we are at the end of our time Marisa thank you so much thank you for having me and thank you so much everybody and we will see you next time see you next week bye