In addition to her role as instructor and academic advisor in the Faculty of Science, she has also been recently named the 1st female director of Waterloo’s Geological Engineering program. Parks reflects on her path that led her to where she is today and recognizes that many students, including herself at one point, do not have a great understanding of the field of earth sciences when they first enter university. Generally, students may not even know about this field, especially in the geosciences, unless they have family or family friends already in the field.
“One thing I really want to do in this position is increase the female-to-male ratio, but also just generally increase our enrollment of the demographic of students we don’t see right now,” said Parks in the CIM article. “I want to increase diversity in our students: diversity from a male-female perspective, LGBTQ+ and also racialized youth. There should be an instant connection between geoengineering and Indigenous youth, and I’d like to increase the enrollment there as well.”
Read more in the June/July 2021 issue of CIM magazine by creating a free online account.