As a future professor, I hope to cultivate a student centered environment of learning, that encourages students to be curious and ask questions, and provide a comfortable space for students to learn from their mistakes. I will adapt my teaching and mentoring style as needed, to ensure I am not rigid in my methods. 

Furthermore, as someone of Puerto Rican descent, I understand the value of representation and the need to foster an inclusive learning setting.  I will continue to commit myself to outreach and helping those that have been historically underserved in science, technology, engineering, and math. 

I taught three core undergraduate courses as a Teaching Assistant (TA) in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Introduction the Thermodynamics, and Heat and Mass Transfer. During my tenure, I implemented two different learning styles, passive learning in the former and active learning in the latter two courses. I effectively deployed my teaching philosophy with both styles but prefer to use an active learning style.

The success of my teaching is reflected in positive feedback from anonymous student evaluations: “Having had Justin as a TA for [thermodynamics] and now heat transfer, he is definitely one of the best TAs I have had in [the department]. He always is really prepared for recitation and can even teach us concepts that we had not covered in lecture yet. His explanations are clear and concise and his board work/PDF uploads are super clear and easy to read”. 

Even with the COVID19 Pandemic impacting learning, I adapted my teaching philosophy to the virtual classroom to great success, applying many of the same techniques I use when in-person teaching, and was voted a finalist for the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. 

At Penn, I worked with an undergraduate researcher to conduct a small numerical experiment in which I provided incremental guiding steps and allowed for their curiosity to drive the research direction. I held weekly meetings where they guided me through their work process and asked questions pertaining to the research topic. This student is now conducting similar numerical research in a PhD program. 

Presently, I contribute to the guidance and mentorship of graduate students in my lab. I have worked alongside a now third-year PhD student, helping them prepare their first manuscript, as well as aiding in preparing for conference presentations. I have also undertaken a more hands-on role in mentoring a Masters student in my group, meeting with them weekly to guide them in their research, and assisting Dr. Donohue in their development.