Global Ambassador: Mavreen Tuvilla

Mavreen graduated with a PhD in Chemistry Education. During her time at Purdue, she worked with underrepresented youth and sought to understand their experiences in the science classroom. She worked with Project RESET which engages resettled Burmese refugee youth in critical STEM practices. Through this project, she helped offer an afterschool program for high school youth that discussed climate and climate change.

Read more about Mavreen's experience in graduate school below. Please note: Mavreen provided these answers while she was still a graduate student at Purdue.

Ambassador Q & A (Questions and Answers)

Mavreen Tuvilla

Why did you choose Purdue?

It offered a great Chemistry Education program. I have heard wonderful things about Purdue University regarding diversity and inclusion.

What is your favorite fact about Purdue?

That it has produced so many astronauts!

Career goal?

I imagine myself as a consultant in K-12 schools. I would carve out a position for myself and my tagline would be "Changing one school at a time."

Where do you spend most of your time on campus?

My office/lab - WTHR.

What apps, software, or tools can’t you live without?

Camtasia, Inqscribe, Google Calendar, Penzu.

What’s your workspace setup?

My workspace is in a lab. My group resides in the Chemistry department and my desk is right by a safety shower. I use my laptop and headphone and often use an extended screen.

If you have free time, how do you choose to spend it?

Watching Korean drama, reading, catching up on television series, cooking!

What everyday thing are you better at than everyone else?

I have a way of "productively procrastinating". Sometimes there are tasks I dread doing so I sometimes do other "easier things". For example, I need to write a 30 page paper but I don't feel like doing it just yet -- I would block off some time and will do something else on my to-do-list -- like read an article.

Other advice?

I write myself letters into the future. (Check out futureme.org). I get one on my birthday each year and sometimes on random dates when something important has happened in the past. It is really quite a treat to read about what I was doing at that point in time and it gives me fresh perspective on the present.

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