myCSUSM
Meet the 2021–2022 STEAM Ambassadors
Jade Comagong
Jade is a Liberal studies major with an emphasis in Border studies, who hopes to combine
her passion for travel with her passion for teaching kids. She is drawn to STEAM because
of the vast perspectives and unique opportunities it provides within student learning.
What does it mean to be a STEAM ambassador to you?
To me being a STEAM ambassador means being able to challenge my curiousity, to go
further in asking questions and playing around with our ideas. By healthily pushing
one another in creating and growing I’ve welcomed a new meaning of collaboration.
Melanie Wollrabe
Melanie attends CSU San Marcos and is majoring in Liberal Studies. She hopes to become an elementary school teacher after college, so becoming a STEAM Ambassador has been a great opportunity for her to gain experience with project planning and working with kids!
What does it mean to be a STEAM ambassador to you?
To me, being a STEAM Ambassador means inspiring young students to create with both art and science, and even storytelling! I found that involving art and storytelling with science has helped to make it both more fun and easier to understand. I hope that as a STEAM Ambassador, I can continue working to bring creativity to science!
Jenna Portis
Jenna Portis is a STEAM Ambassador for California State University San Marcos. She has been going to CSUSM for all four years and will graduate May 2022! Her major is in Liberal Studies and she hopes to become a teacher. Jenna loves incorporating art in a learning environment because she thinks it expands on creativity and individuality.
What does being a STEAM Ambassador mean to you?
Being a STEAM ambassador is important because it gives students the tools and methods they need to explore new and creative ways of problem solving and thinking outside of the box in a multitude of different situations. I love that I have had the opportunity to problem solve different ideas for the project that we had during the spring semester. We were able to all work together and come up with a creative and fun way to see how pollution in water affects the environment around the body of water.
Amy Brunolli – STEAM Designer
Since childhood, Amy has always been involved in the arts from piano lessons at 6 years old to taking art classes throughout middle school and high school. Her first degree in Media Arts & Animation led her to a career working on VFX in such films as The Avengers (2012). During a hiatus from production, Amy began teaching watercolor and oil painting to children and fell in love with teaching. She returned to school to pursue a career in education and recently graduated from Cal State San Marcos with a degree in Liberal Arts. Amy is currently part of the Concurrent Cohort in CSUSM’s credential program and is passionate about integrating STEAM into her future classroom.
What does it mean to be a STEAM Ambassador to you?
I think it really says something about the future of STEAM, that all the ambassadors happen to be women and I am so proud to be among them. I think it is so important for children, especially young girls, to see that they can be involved in STEAM and create amazing things.
Aidelen Montoya
Xochitl Perez Arango
Kodie Gerritsen