At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), I have had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant within the Department of Anthropology and in a youth engaged educational project. In Anthropology, I have been a Teaching Assistant for online introductory courses like Anthropology 101 and for online and in-person lecture courses of Anthropology 103 Anthropology in a Changing World. I have also facilitated discussion sections for the in-person Anthropology 270 Language in Culture course where I made the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their students by the UIUC Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. Additionally, through the UIUC Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program, I had the opportunity to assist two Anthropology faculty in The Diaspora and Border Racial Justice Youth Project in a high school English Language Learners (ELL) classroom during the 2021 - 2022 academic year. In this role, I co-designed teaching materials and assignments that connected social justice thematics and creative practices for students to engage with. With continued attention and care to my pedagogical practice, I was awarded the Master Course in Online Teaching Certificate in 2024 from the Center for Innovation, Teaching and Learning (CITL) and am in progress on a CITL Certificate in the Foundations of Teaching.

In connection with my teaching, mentorship has been critical to my own professional development and now in my own pedagogical practice. At UIUC, I am currently a peer mentor with the Doctoral Research Support Program since 2020, mentored with the undergraduate Illinois Promise Scholar Program from 2019 - 2023, and was awarded the UIUC Graduate College Mentoring Certificate in 2023.