#CaltechTogether: Renée Wang

“I'm a resident associate for other graduate students, and as part of this job, we put together programs. The main challenge right now for students is social isolation. One of the ways we're trying to mitigate that is by hosting virtual events, such as one-hour Zoom gatherings, but we’re also trying to figure out new ways to connect people online. I put together a birdwatching challenge with flyers describing birds that are commonly seen around Caltech, from peacocks to parrots to mourning doves, and offered dining gift cards to the first 10 people to send me a response with a photo of a bird they’d seen. I thought it made sense because birdwatching is something you can do on your own, and even though students can't gather in closed areas, they are still able to go for walks outside. I'm not a birdwatcher, but I do enjoy looking at birds. I’ve noticed, for example, the acorn woodpeckers that are east of campus. The idea for my program was to have a different way to reach out and give the message that Caltech is trying to engage with them. Right now, I can't just sit at the Red Door Cafe and shout to people and be like, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ and wave them to come over. So, that's a struggle. I think the silver lining in this situation is that we have to think of new ways to keep ourselves occupied, and so we're noticing things we haven't noticed before, like the birds.”

Renée Wang is a fourth-year graduate student in geochemistry and a resident associate in Braun House.

#CaltechTogether is a special edition of #SoCaltech spotlighting the many ways members of our community are joining together to support one another and to take responsibility for our collective health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.