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SFSU's Science Communication
The Pandemic Academics


A journey to dental school
After graduating in the fall of 2017 from San Francisco State university, I embarked on a one-year long internship as a dental assistant....
Salvador Alvarado
May 1, 20213 min read
169 views
3 comments


The Power of Awe
Most of us have felt moments of awe, but perhaps many of us have never taken the time to think about how these experiences change us.

Dennis Jongsomjit
Mar 23, 20216 min read
72 views
1 comment


The importance of the sustainability of the forest and the consequences of deforestation
For thousands of years trees have been a vital source of wood, providing an essential material for building homes. Forest are natural...
Florence E. Fields
Mar 18, 20212 min read
27 views
2 comments


K-12 Science Teaching as a Professional Career
Rocky is a 4th-year biotechnology teacher at South San Francisco High School. He earned his B.S. in Microbiology, Immunology, and...

Rocky Ng
Mar 8, 20213 min read
29 views
0 comments


Stand up for Equity and Inclusion!
Science is Power and we all need to be at the table Science has the power to change the course of history for better or for worse. This...
Angela Lane, Lela Legesse & Midley Michaud
Mar 4, 20213 min read
32 views
0 comments


5 Ways to Revamp Your LinkedIn Profile
As we move more and more to a technology-based society, we have found ways to enhance our experiences. Over the past 20 years we've been...

Lela Legesse
Mar 1, 20212 min read
11 views
0 comments


The Expectations and Progress of Women
Confucius once said, “a hundred women are not worth a single testicle.” Kurt Vonnegut thought that “Educating a beautiful woman is like...
Florence E. Fields
Feb 21, 20212 min read
37 views
1 comment


Tips For Reading A Scientific Paper
Reading a scientific paper can be intimidating. I didn’t read a lot of academic research papers as an undergraduate student (my classes...

Fiona Duong
Feb 15, 20213 min read
11 views
0 comments


Honoring 3 Trailblazers
As an African American woman in STEM, it has been my ongoing goal to find role models for myself and my students. I’d like to highlight...

Angela Lane
Feb 11, 20212 min read
23 views
0 comments


Simple things you can do to help native bird populations
Have you ever looked outside at that tufted titmouse, the singing white-crowned sparrow, or even that mischievous scrub jay, and thought...
Faith De Amaral
Feb 8, 20213 min read
42 views
0 comments


3 Field Guide Apps to Help Settle the Brown Recluse Argument Once and For All
If you’ve dabbled in birding, espoused your love of local wildflowers, or had to explain that “no, that isn’t a brown recluse”, and “yes...

Kathryn Papoulias
Feb 8, 20214 min read
31 views
0 comments


Exploring the Unknown - Thoughts on Science, Persistence, and Progress
Imagine sitting around a table with some of the world's experts on Antarctic ecology. All in all, including everyone at the table, we’re...

Dennis Jongsomjit
Feb 4, 20214 min read
65 views
0 comments


Sunflower Seastar Now Critically Endangered
In August of 2020 the IUCN officially declared the Sunflower Seastar (Pycnopodia helianthoides) as critically endangered, one step before...
Jeremiah Ets-Hokin
Feb 1, 20212 min read
52 views
0 comments


Challenges for Educators During Distance Learning
By Salvador Alvarado and Rocky Ng It has been more than half a year now since schools and universities have had to close their doors to...
Salvador Alvarado and Rocky Ng
Jan 20, 20213 min read
8 views
0 comments


Normalize Telling Students That They Are Enough (TW: mental health issues and suicide)
It was my first round of finals at UC Berkeley as I heard throughout the dorms that another student had jumped off of the open balcony on...
Anonymous
Jan 18, 20214 min read
10 views
0 comments


Climate Change Is Real: Green House Gases Are The Cause And Humans Contribute
Climate change describes global shifts in normal weather patterns and global warming which for those who do not pay close attention have...
Florence E. Fields
Jan 14, 20212 min read
43 views
0 comments


Carcinogens seem to be in everything, but what are they??
A carcinogen is an agent that has the capacity to cause cancer in humans. The agent can be of a chemical nature (e.g. drugs), physical...

Lauren Levesque
Jan 11, 20214 min read
189 views
0 comments


Opinion: How do we prevent the next pandemic?
Written by Marie Lilly Long before the COVID-19 outbreak, many brilliant scientists predicted that the next pandemic would be a...

Marie Lilly
Jan 5, 20212 min read
9 views
0 comments


Online Learning: How are students doing?
By: Casey Mitchell, Jarred Dela Cruz, and Lauren Levesque The transition to online learning due to restrictions imposed by COVID-19 has...
Casey Mitchell, Jarred Dela Cruz, Lauren Levesque
Jan 4, 20217 min read
13 views
0 comments


Are We Doing Enough? The Battle with Distance Learning during COVID-19
As we all battle with the effects that this pandemic has caused us physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially there are far...

Lela Legesse
Dec 22, 20203 min read
5 views
0 comments


Inclusivity In SCUBA
As a SCUBA diver, one of the most common questions I get is “what do you see down there?”. This question speaks to the sense of unknown...
Jeremiah Ets-Hokin
Dec 21, 20202 min read
6 views
0 comments


How to stay active and optimize well-being during the pandemic
We’re all going through these uncertain times together, not knowing what we should do to maintain our well being and stay healthy. I...

Midley Michaud
Dec 18, 20202 min read
9 views
0 comments


Affirmations to Tell Yourself While Waiting for Grad Admissions Committees to Take Their Sweet Time
While you wait and twiddle your thumbs for acceptance decisions from the 30 schools you applied to (looking at you, pre-meds), the...
Faith De Amaral
Dec 14, 20204 min read
475 views
0 comments


An Open Letter to Your Family "Covidiot" - Part 2: Vaccines
During the summer of this pandemic, I received an email from an educated family friend that had quite a bit of information I disagreed...

Brendan Heath
Dec 14, 202011 min read
66 views
0 comments


Enough with the tired narratives about Women in STEM. Research needs to be intersectional.
Written by Marie Lilly I opened Twitter on November 18, 2020, to see a Nature Communications article titled, “The association between...

Marie Lilly
Dec 11, 20203 min read
69 views
0 comments


BioSLAM: Revamping Online Curriculum
COVID-19 changed norms worldwide and our daily habits and routines will continue to shift in the foreseeable future. From how we interact...
Casey Mitchell and Jarred Dela Cruz
Dec 3, 20203 min read
142 views
0 comments


Are you a transfer student looking to get into medical or dental schools? All grades count!
I began my academic career at San Francisco State University as a transfer student from City College of San Francisco. At City, I...
Salvador Alvarado
Dec 2, 20202 min read
158 views
0 comments


The Near and Long Term: A Couple of Promising Advances Due to Recent Focus on Coronavirus Research
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which causes Covid-19 has dominated headlines, attention, and pretty much every aspect of the world so...

Brendan Heath
Dec 2, 20207 min read
33 views
0 comments


STEM + Art = STEAM: A New Approach to Learning
What does art have to do with science? And what does science have to do with art? Although the two may seem like completely opposite...

Fiona Duong
Nov 30, 20203 min read
81 views
0 comments


3 Books by Women about the Environment that Everyone Should Read
“This is our work, to discover what we can give. Isn’t this the purpose of education, to learn the nature of your own gifts and how to...

Kathryn Papoulias
Nov 23, 20204 min read
128 views
0 comments


Make the most of quarantine. Build your career!
Developing in your career is difficult. Being quarantined and trying to develop your career feels impossible. Back in 2018, I realized...
Casey Mitchell
Nov 19, 20204 min read
10 views
0 comments


Alaskan reefs face danger from predator loss and climate change
The Aleutian Islands are a string of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller islands stretching from Alaska to Russia. If you happen to...
Jeremiah Ets-Hokin
Nov 18, 20203 min read
13 views
0 comments


The Impact of Transitioning to Distance Learning due to COVID-19 in Low-income Communities
As the number of infections and deaths due to the coronavirus continues to increase daily around the world, the main focus has been on...

Lela Legesse
Nov 12, 20205 min read
13 views
0 comments


Writing A Scientific Manuscript: The Path to Publication (Hopefully!)
Before I embarked on the journey of writing a manuscript, my understanding of the writing and publication process was fairly vague. This...

Fiona Duong
Nov 9, 20203 min read
12 views
0 comments


Distance Learning Tips for STEM Educators
Rocky is a 4th-year biotechnology teacher at South San Francisco High School. He earned his B.S. in Microbiology, Immunology, and...

Rocky Ng
Nov 5, 20205 min read
132 views
0 comments


Climate Change, Communities, & Collections
What do protest signs, mushrooms, and feathered headdresses have in common? They’re all objects featured in the Global Museum’s latest...

Kathryn Papoulias
Oct 30, 20203 min read
40 views
0 comments


An Open Letter to Your Family “Covidiot” – Part 1
Link to "Part 2" During the summer of this pandemic, I received an email from an educated family friend that had quite a bit of...

Brendan Heath
Oct 28, 20208 min read
159 views
0 comments


Learning to Code: A Biologist’s Journey
I always saw myself involved in biomedical research, as I enjoyed my science classes and wanted to do work that could potentially have...

Lauren Levesque
Oct 26, 20203 min read
28 views
0 comments


Social Justice in Conservation Science: Why We Need Your Voice
Diversity in conservation could lead to better and more creative solutions to the environmental justice issue.

Dennis Jongsomjit
Oct 22, 20205 min read
113 views
0 comments


Time management: Maximizing your time to feel less stressed
All of us have the same number of hours in a day….Yes, even celebrities! Though as a student, it seems like there’s never enough time to...

Midley Michaud
Oct 21, 20202 min read
20 views
0 comments


The Presidential Race: Through a Scientific Lens
As the Presidential Election on November 3rd approaches, voters generally have a strong sense of who they want to vote for based on key...
Jarred Dela Cruz
Oct 15, 20205 min read
75 views
0 comments


Science in the Ballots: Proposition 14
November 3, 2020. I’m sure you’ve seen this date in the news or through the constant reminders on social media by your...
Jarred Dela Cruz
Oct 7, 20204 min read
130 views
0 comments


Tips for applying to the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP)
Written by Marie Lilly, 2020 NSF GRFP Awardee There are thousands of different graduate schools, programs, and lab groups to choose from...
Marie Lilly
Sep 28, 20206 min read
243 views
1 comment


PhD, do you love me? I’m applying
Hi reader, this is blog post where we are going to discuss our experiences with applying to PhD programs in biology for Fall 2019. We are...
Adrienne Le, Minerva Orellana and Jordan Salomon
Sep 18, 201910 min read
41 views
0 comments


A letter to the upcoming future scientists
When I was a freshman in college, I thought I knew everything is happening around me because I was determined and thought I knew the...
Johnson Yang
May 7, 20191 min read
19 views
0 comments


A review of “Chemistry” by Weike Wang
The novel Chemistry by Weike Wang has been recognized and recommended by many well-known individuals, including Oprah. The story is...
Tersa Ortega and Amy Wong
Apr 23, 20196 min read
769 views
0 comments


Space Travel: The Next Big Leap?
Space has been a big topic in the last year. From Elon Musk launching his Tesla into space, live streaming for all to see, to NASA...
Andrew Mahoney
Apr 12, 20192 min read
8 views
0 comments


Importance of Natural History Museums
Most people think that museums only house arts and anthropological exhibits, for the most part. Moreover, there is the thinking that...
Joseph B Comendador
Apr 10, 20193 min read
728 views
0 comments


Impossible Burger: The Fake Meat That’s Making Real News
It seems like healthy foods have been steadily gaining popularity in these recent years. You don’t have to try hard to find countless...
Wesley Sun
Apr 9, 20193 min read
9 views
0 comments


The importance of activism and social justice in STEM
Hello everyone! In today’s post, I would like to talk about the importance of activism and social awareness in STEM. This is a topic I’ve...
Coohleen Coombes
Apr 1, 20194 min read
14 views
0 comments
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