STEM: SHOWCASE
Karen Mendiondo UTSA Environmental Science and Engineering Student By Antonio Gutierrez
As a child, Karen Mendiondo found great fascination in the rocks and minerals she found and tucked in her pocket while hiking the White Mountains of her native New Hampshire and marveling at the scenic views.
mentor a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary students to become leaders in earth system sciences, remote sensing technologies, computational fluid dynamics, and experimental fluid mechanics.
“I’ve always enjoyed nature, being outdoors, and climbing mountains to look down and view the earth from a different perspective,” she said.
And what more can Mendiondo ask for? Her STEM-related career choice sometimes has her working outdoors, right where she is most comfortable. “It doesn’t feel like work when we’re doing geological investigations outside – even when it’s 100 degrees,” she said. “I also enjoy the challenge of communicating difficult STEM concepts in simple terms so anyone can understand, and the reward of mentoring undergraduate students and seeing their progress and successes.”
Mendiondo hasn’t entirely left those carefree childhood explorations behind or her interest in all the wonders that Mother Nature offers. Today, she continues to follow the calling of the wind, or rather her heart, in pursuit of her doctoral degree at UTSA in environmental science and engineering. Her full-time studies are funded by UTSA’s NASA MIRO Center for Advanced Measurements in Extreme Environments. Its mission is to recruit, educate, and 86
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The idea of exploring and learning about the Earth through research projects is especially appealing to Mendiondo, and there is a variety of exciting research possibilities. “You can map the inside of a cave, get a