NOAA Outreach Event at Millersville University
Article Provided by ORTA Team
Figure 1: NOAA information table located in lobby of Caputo Hall (Photo Credit: Sepi Yalda)
On September 24, 2024 the NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research / Office of Research, Transition, and Application (ORTA) participated in a Career Outreach Event at Millersville University, Millersville, PA. Millersville University of Pennsylvania.
Figures 2-3: Kenneth Vierra (ORTA), alumni of Millersville, and Fiona Horsfall presenting career briefings (Photo Credit: NOAA)
Ken Vierra, Management and Program Analyst, Transition Support Specialist at ORTA, is an Alumni of Millersville University and is still involved in discussions with the Earth Science Department. For this event, NOAA was invited to provide career briefings for the students. Career briefings included Oceanography/Field Experimentation by Ken and Meteorology by Fiona Horsfall, Director of ORTA. Briefings on Uncrewed Systems and Remote Sensing were also presented to students by Ken and Hanna Odahara, a NOAA Sea Grant Knauss Fellow for OAR’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. As a recent graduate student, Hanna gave insight to student opportunities, including her experience as a Knauss Fellow.
Figure 4: Hanna Odahara (AOML) presenting uncrewed systems and student opportunity briefing (Photo Credit: NOAA)
Additionally, a NOAA information table was set up in the lobby of Caputo Hall so that students could obtain information between classes. Fiona, Ken, and Hanna provided briefings at four sessions throughout the day which included:
- Marine Biology class with Dr. Dominique Didier;
- Introduction to Meteorology class with Dr. Todd Sikora; and
- Remote Sensing class with Dr. Ajoy Kumar.
Figures 5-8: Marine Biology class; Introduction to Meteorology class; and Remote Sensing class.
As part of the event, ORTA hosted a virtual reality (VR) experience, which offered the students the chance to discover colorful corals, explore a shipwreck, swim with playful sea lions, or explore Hawaiian waters with green sea turtles. These VR experiences were created by the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. More information about these can be found at the Sanctuaries 360°: Explore the Blue website. Also available on ORTA’s VR headset was the opportunity to investigate the urban heat island effect in Washington, DC. This virtual reality experience, created by the NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab, guides viewers through the nation’s capital, displaying the urban heat island phenomenon throughout the city. Urban heat islands are areas that experience higher temperatures compared to nearby areas. These temperature differences are often due to highly concentrated urbanized features, such as buildings and roads and limited greenery, such as trees.
ORTA’s Ken Vierra also brought along Ember, his Keeshond K-9 Caring Angels Therapy Dog who is NOAA’s Canine Ambassador. All the faculty and students were excited that Ember was onsite to provide them a break from their work and studies. And of course Ember was the biggest draw!
Figures 9-12: Ember NOAA’s Canine Ambassador being petted by students (Photo Credit: NOAA)
Dr. Lynn Marquez, who coordinated the Millersville event with NOAA, received very positive feedback from Dr. Ajoy Kumar and Dr. Todd Sikora. Students found the talks very helpful in providing them a better understanding of potential career paths in NOAA, and the trading cards were very popular as they provided key descriptions of OAR labs, in particular, the students were able to identify labs that are relevant for their studies. These OAR trading cards were designed and developed in coordination with each of the labs by ORTA to highlight the lab’s innovative technologies.
Ken, who is a 1978 Alumni when Millersville University was called Millersville State College, noted that very few of the original buildings still stand, and those that are still there have been expanded. One thing that has not changed and has existed for some 90 years was the local diner called the “Sugar Bowl,” famous on campus for their strombolis. Ken did pick up a few on his way home to stoke memories of his time at Millersville! ORTA supports and leads efforts that contribute to an organizational culture of equity, inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity to create a workplace where individual differences are valued and leveraged to achieve the mission and priorities of the organization as defined by the NOAA OAR DEIA Implementation Plan (FY2022-25). Outreach events such as this one open both students’ and the public’s eyes to NOAA’s science-based mission and career opportunities.
