Hello! My name is Jessica Li and I just finished my third year as an Honours Animal Biology student. I was born and raised in Burnaby, BC, which is right next to Vancouver. Outside of academics, I’m also part of the Science Peer Academic Coaches (SPAC) and was awarded an NSERC USRA this year, so I’ll be spending my summer doing research on sea stars in the Harley lab (Fun fact: I love the ocean and hope to get my scuba certification this summer as well)!
This past year, I’ve been a peer tutor for both BIOL 121 and BIOL 201 online and hope to continue peer tutoring next year (I look forward to seeing everyone in person too)!
What do you most enjoy about being a peer tutor?
My favourite part of being a peer tutor has to be either interacting with students directly or seeing that moment when something clicks for a student and they solve whatever they were confused about. That moment is super satisfying and it’s great to know that you were part of guiding someone towards it! I loved engaging with students since everyone had such different backgrounds and goals, which led to many interesting conversations. It was especially nice this year since we all went through online school for the first time together, so the more open discussions we had in office hours allowed us to bond over the difficulties we were all going through and make sure students knew it wasn’t a one-sided struggle.
How has your unique background influenced your peer tutoring experience?
I had been tutoring since high school and also took a peer tutoring course while in high school, both of which taught me a lot about how people learn! This gave me a solid foundation to rely on regardless of the course I was peer tutoring at the time. One thing I did often was use different methods to explain things to students when the way I learned or the way the textbook taught it wasn’t making sense for them. I had also been tutoring via Zoom the summer before, which allowed me to become more familiar with teaching over video calls and how to use all the Zoom features!
What is something you are currently doing at UBC that you are excited about?
Currently, I am doing my first independent research project on a super under-studied sea star named Evasterias troschelii (more commonly known as the mottled sea star). They took over as the most abundant sea star species along our Vancouver intertidal zone after a severe disease outbreak wiped out many of their main competitor and keystone species, Pisaster ochraceus (ochre sea stars). I’m super excited to be looking into how these little fellas survive changing stressors in their environment since it’s such a prevalent issue with climate change and these guys are now super ecologically important, so any more data on them is good to have!
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I personally love collecting random hobbies, especially over the last year in lockdown. I’ve always loved to bake and cook recipes I found online, but recently I’ve also gotten really into some more niche, crafty hobbies. At the moment, I’ve fallen in love with cross stitching and have just started to teach myself how to crochet! These also really helped me not get distracted when watching online lectures since it was just a mindless thing to do with my hands (10/10 would recommend :D)!
What are your plans following graduation?
Currently, I’m deciding between grad school and med school (I know, very typical haha). I’m planning on applying to UBC Medical School this summer and if I don’t get in, I hope to do a Master’s Degree on something involving the ocean. Like I mentioned above, I’m currently doing research in a marine invertebrate lab and absolutely LOVE the ocean (nothing beats snorkeling or even just a sunset walk along the beach), so I might expand into other marine animals, like mammals or just another marine invertebrate! Regardless of which path I take, I hope to still incorporate teaching into my future in some capacity since I’ve always loved it. Luckily, I believe that both career options are pretty heavily integrated with teaching or mentorship opportunities, so I’m optimistic it’ll work out!