The primary goal of the Compass Project is the improvement of the student experience in the physical sciences at UC Berkeley through peer-to-peer or near-peer interactions, especially for students who are typically underrepresented in the physical sciences. We also aim to increase the retention of underrepresented students by fostering a strong sense of community and belonging, and to provide our participants with opportunities for professional development. We believe that a person’s academic achievement should be bound solely by the horizon of their intellectual curiosity, and that the breadth of innovation of people from all backgrounds is essential to the vitality of the physical sciences. Guided by these beliefs, the Compass Project seeks to nurture a community-focused environment that will empower students, particularly students from underrepresented backgrounds, to succeed in pursuing their scientific interests and contribute uniquely to the physical sciences community. Our efforts have been recognized by the American Physical Society, who presented Compass with the 2012 Award for Improving Undergraduate Physics Education.
Website/Social Media
Follow us on Twitter at @compassproject
People
Shannon Hailey (Network Fellow 2021)
Vanessa Hernandez-Cruz (Assembly Fellow 2018)
Donez Horton-Bailey (Assembly Fellow 2020; Network Fellow 2018, 2019, 2020)
Edgar Ibarra (Assembly Fellow 2016, 2017, 2019)
Vikram Nagarajan, vikram_nagarajan@berkeley.edu (Network Fellow 2021)
John Van Patten (Network Fellow 2017)
Andreana Rosnik (Network Fellow 2016)
Joseph Slivka (Assembly Fellow 2022)
Hannah Weaver (she/her/hers), hlweaver@berkeley.edu (Assembly Fellow 2021)
Hannah Weaver grew up in Whitefish, Montana (aka Big Sky country, where you can find 2.5x as many crows as people). She is a 4th-year graduate student in physics at UC Berkeley studying energy dynamics in 2D materials with sophisticated microscopes. In college, she learned to appreciate working with lasers and optics, and now she finds light-matter interactions to be one of the most fascinating aspects of physics. Her hobbies include gardening, cooking, and being outside. After graduating, she is looking forward to continuing her research in an industry setting.
Kohtaro Yamakawa (Network Fellow 2022)