Three photos side by side; the first of a person with short brown hair, blue eyes, and wearing all black; the second a woman with brown hair, bangs, a black shirt and a grey/green blazer jacket, and the third a woman with long brown hair, a black shirt, and a red leather jacket.
From left to right: Center for Communicating Science Graduate Assistant Quinn Richards, Post-MFA Sarah Elizabeth Yorke, and Post-MFA Rebekah Dawn Hall. Photos courtesy of Richards, Yorke, and Hall.

With commencement in May we said goodbye to two terrific undergraduate student interns, RJ Loyd and Brandon Cleary, who worked with the Center for Communicating Science both fall and spring semesters last year. We greatly appreciated their help with the Nutshell Games, Communicating Science Week, flier design, social media, newsletter stories, our collaboration with the English department to publish research stories, and many other projects. 

    Loyd, a physics and technical/professional writing graduate, is currently in Northern Virginia looking for science communication work. “The internship was a great experience that helped me practice making scientific concepts understandable to the public,” Loyd says. “I also learned about designing and planning social media posts and a social media campaign.”

    Cleary is working at the University of Virginia Medical Center as an Operations Coordinator for the Patient Friendly Access team. “I use lots of skills I practiced in my internship with the center, such as drafting and editing documents, managing communications, and creating deliverables,” he reports. “I learned a lot about engaging different audiences and emphasizing accessibility for a diverse range of communities. I really enjoyed helping get stories on their feet and seeing the end result, knowing how happy the author would be when they saw their story published on the website.” 

    Thanks so much for your enthusiasm, creativity, and hard work, RJ and Brandon!

    We’d also like to introduce our two newest post-MFA fellows, Sarah Elizabeth Yorke and Rebekah Dawn Hall, along with our new graduate assistant Quinn Richards. Both Yorke and Hall joined Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts in August. Richards, a new master’s degree student in Virginia Tech’s public health program, also arrived for the fall semester.

    With an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Tampa and an interest in pursuing a career as a veterinary neurologist and researcher, Richards brings a wealth of experience in written and oral communication, social media, events planning, and diversity and inclusion initiatives to the center. You’ll see them writing in this newsletter and meet them at our events. 

    Yorke is a director, producer, actor, administrator, and educator “from a mile-long town in the Coal Region of Pennsylvania,” she says. She received her B.A. in theatre arts at Virginia Tech in 2012 and is returning now with a Master of Fine Arts in Directing and Master of Arts Administration from Ohio University, with a special focus in theatre production and management. 

    Yorke has directed over 30 productions and is dedicated to re-examining the classics and developing new works for a younger, more diverse audience. She firmly believes “that the human should come before the artist and the artist should come before the art” and places humanity at the forefront of her artistic philosophy and daily practices. 

    Hall has worked as an actor, dancer, singer, devisor, choreographer, director, and teaching artist across the western United States, Australia, and most recently New York City. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in theatre performance from Arizona State University and a B.A. in theatre and dance from California State University, Sacramento. 

    Hall specializes in psychological realism and psychophysical actor training techniques, movement-based practices, dance/theatre mediums, and creating original work. She is deeply passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration, whether it’s the intersection of various art forms or multiple fields of study, and hopes to develop her creative research while at Virginia Tech, she says.

    Both Hall and Yorke will teach the undergraduate course Introduction to Applied Collaborative Techniques (TA 2404), a course developed by Center for Communicating Science director Patty Raun, as well as teaching Introduction to Acting. We look forward to learning from and with them both.

    Welcome, Quinn, Sarah, and Rebekah Dawn!