2023 Gelfand Student Educational Outreach Award Winners
Elizabeth Chang-Davidson, Alex Gourley, and Deetya Iyer are this year’s recipients of the Gelfand Center’s Educational Outreach Awards for dedicating their time and expertise to make a difference in the lives of children in the community and around the world.
Elizabeth Chang-Davidson , a fourth year PhD student [Mechanical Engineering] has served as one of a team of head coaches for the Western PA Math Circle and ARML team since 2019, and has been the only head coach for the last year. The Western PA Math Circle and ARML team is a math enrichment program officially sponsored by the CMU math department and run by CMU students from a range of departments within CMU. As the head coach, she is responsible for all of the team operations, including making sure there are coaches to teach practice every week, arranging room reservations, scheduling practices, sending out informational emails, and coordinating competition logistics. In addition, as one of the coaches, Elizabeth teaches practice several times a semester and attends practice nearly every Sunday to help with the weekly logistics. Zoe Weller, a fellow coach shared that “Elizabeth has a strong rapport with every student and I have often overheard conversations in which they seek her guidance about further mathematical opportunities and their academic lives”.
Alexander “Alex” Gourley , a second year PhD student [Mechanical Engineering] was inspired to share his passion for Mechanical Engineering before he even arrived at CMU. Pam Piskurich, Director of Educational Outreach Initiatives at the Leonard Gelfand Center, said “Alex reached out to the Gelfand Center once he learned of his acceptance in graduate school at CMU. Classes had not even started when he met with me to discuss programming and planning for the workshops. He developed a 3-hour class on 3-D printing for students in grades 3-5. That class has been conducted over the past 2 years and is one of the most popular classes of our program.” In addition to his commitment to Gelfand Outreach, Alex has participated in virtual, asynchronous learning opportunities for students through his interview on “The GO STEM Show” discussing his experiences in engineering.
Deetya Iyer , a junior, [Electrical and Computer Engineering - ECE] shares her passion for STEM Learning through a variety of outreach activities both on campus and off. On campus Deetya is currently the President of the ECE Outreach Club and a Gelfand Outreach TA. Off campus Deetya is heavily involved in K-12 STEM programming in her hometown, supporting Summer Robotics Camps and Computer Science programming at her alma maters. Deetya’s commitment to teaching others about the joys of STEM learning has allowed her to share her knowledge with students from Kindergarten to 12th grade from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds. In reference to her commitment to ECE Outreach, Dr. Thomas Sullivan shared that “[Deetya’s] ECE work-load is not light, yet she finds time to make sure the Outreach events run smoothly, that everyone has their clearances, and that everyone is enjoying themselves”.