As a transplant from Florida, some people didn't think I'd make it through my first winter. After buying a lot of sweaters, I've successfully lived through my first 5 winters in Colorado and am still loving every minute of it. My reason for moving so far away from home was to persue higher education at the Colorado School of Mines. I recieved my Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics from this instution in May of 2010, and have since stayed on to earn a Master's degree in the same field. My name is Larissa Taylor and I am proud to be a CSM alumni. As a graduate student, I have been working toward completing a thesis and, through the Bechtel program, working with elementary education to increase interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). My research is focused in underwater acoustics; specifically, I am interested in numerically solving a nonlinear parabolic equation to analyze the behavior of explosive sound waves in an underwater environment. The Bechtel program gives me the chance to supplement my experence in the computer lab with experience teaching in the classroom; as a teaching fellow, in past years I have assisted at Fairview Elementary, working in first, second, and third grade science and math classes. Currently, I am working more on the administration and assessment end of the program, assisting faculty members at Mines in gathering data. With an upcoming graduation in December, I hope to find a career in the software engineering field, where my skills and finer qualities might be put to good use.

The Bechtel program at CSM is a program geared at bringing graduate students from all disciplines into participating Kindergarden through fifth grade classrooms with the aim of revitalizing math and science education. In exchange for school funding, the graduate fellows are required to spend 10 to 15 hours in the classroom each week working with the students. With the additional resources, the teachers and fellows can introduce new and exciting concepts to the students, resulting in increased interest in the sciences overall.