Brandon L. Barker

Stellar Mentorship Program:

I am the graduate student leader for the Stellar Mentorship program at MSU. This program is designed to offer mentorship and career support for all MSU astronomers -- from beginning undergraduates to faculty. Mentees are paired by career level, matching undergraduates with early grad students, early grad students with senior grad students, and so on. In addition to mentorship, we plan professional development workshops for members of the department.

MSU Departmental Service

In an effort to make the department a place supportive of all members, I remain heavily involved in departmental service, particularly within the Astronomy Group. I have organized MSU astronomy prospective grad student visit (2020, 2021), helped to interview faculty candidates (2020), and serve on the Astronomy Seminar Committee (2020-2021).

Goldwater Scholars Community Council (2018-2019)

Organize programming and events for Goldwater Scholars. Help to foster a community among Scholars.

Undergraduate Research Students' Association:

I served for two years on the executive board of the Undergraduate Research Students' Association at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. We were heavily involved in promoting undergraduate research across campus and fostering a community amongster undergraduate researchers. Every spring we hosted an undergraduate research symposium on campus where students could present their research in a low stress environment.

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research:

Pursuit is a university wide, cross-discipline undergradaute research journal at UTK. I was Research Editor for the Sciences and Engineering for two years and a review team leader for one year.

Society of Physics Students:

For all five years of undergrad I was heavily involved with the University of Tennessee (UTK) chapter of the Society of Physics Students. In addition to all of the outreach that we did, I often held workshops and panels for other undergrads covering topics such as how to get started in undergraduate research, grad school discussion panels, and how to make a poster. In an unofficial capacity, we served as peer mentors for other students in the department.