Sophie Adams

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I am currently an English Teaching Assistant with the Fulbright program in Malaysia. I am located in Sibu, Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. My job focuses on providing a wide variety of activities and educational opportunities for students at a secondary school. I teach English classes and also host different activities such as gardening, art clubs, and photography. I also have helped host English language camps focused on emergency management with the US Navy, and on wildlife conservation with a local nonprofit. Although I am not actively using mathematics in my teaching, the critical thinking skills and perseverance I honed have enabled me to work in a drastically different environment with a lot of expectations.

Previously, I worked as a Hydrometeorological Research Assistant at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, NH. I received the offer to start research at Plymouth State after I accepted an offer of admission into the Applied Meteorology Master of Science program. The research is focused mainly on forest micrometeorology, which is a novel field that could have a variety of impacts on climate change models, and the calculations for the net energy budget. I lead aspects of the statistical analysis using data collected at a Flux Tower in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. I also used multiple regression methods in the R software I learned at Saint Michael’s with Dr. Michael Larsen and Dr. Phil Yates. Another aspect of my job also involved leading the publicity for the project, such as writing blog posts, and taking photographs. Last fall, while working towards my masters, I helped with statistical analysis with Flux Tower data and helped a fellow graduate student place snowpack sensors around the base of Tuckerman’s Ravine. This will hopefully help us understand snowmelt dynamics and improve avalanche prediction.

I feel extremely lucky to be involved in these opportunities teaching abroad and research work as it applies all that I learned and experienced as a Mathematics major and Environmental Studies/Studio Art minors. Additionally, my work has incorporated field work and wilderness skills I gained as an Adventure Sports Instructor, public speaking skills and presentation skills as Student Association President, and the written communication skills honed by the liberal arts curriculum. I hope to get further involved in my community at Plymouth State and continue activism and social justice work I was fortunate enough to participate in at Saint Michael’s.

It’s a no-brainer that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve and apply all the skills I learned at St. Mike’s without the passionate faculty, staff, and students. My advice? Soak it all up, and find something post grad that uses the unique skill set you build as a mathematics student at a liberal arts institution.