I have taken advantage of several opportunities that I have had to serve in several different capacities during my time at ACU. Below are short reflections and highlights.
Service to the Department. I spend most of my time and efforts in the Biology Department. Besides teaching my classes and mentoring research students, I do not have any long-term service commitments to the department. Other faculty members in the department have been respectful of my time commitments to the University and to my young family. I serve the department in short-term capacities, such as in reviewing Capstone papers or Research Festival abstracts.
Service to the University. Most of my service to the university lies in the area of Undergraduate Research. I enjoy serving on the ACU Undergraduate Research Festival judging and prizes committee each spring. I appreciate the chance to be involved this event that allows the undergraduates on campus to professionally present their research. I am also active in the Research Council.
I am also a sponsor of ACU’s chapter of Alpha Chi National College Honor Society. This has allowed me to serve students across the university rather than just in the Biology Department. Undergraduate research plays a part in this sponsorship as well.
Service to the Community. My family and I are members at University Church of Christ (UCC) where we serve the people that worship there. It seems a little awkward for me to be listing service that I participate in at UCC to “count” toward tenure and promotion. I try to serve wherever I can, whether it be occasionally in the university student ministry or more regularly in the Transitions ministry. One of the reasons that we placed membership at UCC was because there were clear places for both my husband and I to serve. We have found our favorite place to serve in the Transitions ministry. This is a relatively new gender-inclusive ministry which we became a part of early on. It is described as a ministry for people in their 20s and 30s, though there are people in their 40s as well. As part of this ministry we have led classes, hosted small group in our home regularly, organized ladies lunches, and welcomed guests to UCC. We started out with about five families and we currently have over 20 families or “units” for lack of a better term. Most people in the ministry are a part of traditional families, but some are single, single moms, or couples. This ministry is where we feel called to serve most. The ministry itself is in a time of reorganization since the minister for this group has taken a position at another church. Our new role will be to line up teachers for the Sunday morning Bible class and teach more often in addition to the service that we already do for this group. We are excited to see what lies ahead in this ministry.
Service to the Profession. There are several ways in which I serve the profession. On a daily basis, I mentor up from three to seven undergraduate researchers in my microbial genetics lab. I encourage them to present at a state meeting, the Texas Branch of the American Society for Microbiology, in the Spring. During this meeting, I serve as a judge for the many presentations that are given.
Another areas of service to the profession that I am involved in occurs one day each spring. It is the STEM for Girls event organized by Sarah Lee and Jennifer Shewmaker. ACU professors, mostly female, present a scientific session to a total of 45 middle school girls during a half-day workshop in order to encourage the younger girls to pursue science. For the past three years, Rebecca Hunter and I have partnered together to present biology sessions to the girls. We also have some of our best female undergraduates assist us. This allows the young girls to have several strong female biologist role models. I have had good feedback from the girls saying what a great time they had and even one seventh grader that talks to me yearlong about how she is looking forward to next year’s event.
This STEM for Girls event could also be considered to be service to the community. I choose to classify it as service to the profession because of the great need that is present to train and retain women in the science of biology and microbiology.