Hayley Huntley

Undergraduate Fellow

“I’m a major in environmental policy and have a minor in violin performance. I could not give up the fact that I really wanted to make a difference in the world through science communication. When you can hear nature, it's a very different experience from when you see nature. It's something very powerful and different for a lot of people. You can visualize it with your own personal experience and you can hear it in ways that are not so typical and so it can elicit different responses. And that is really overlooked sometimes.

Music is a really great way to connect to the human psyche. It can communicate why to care about science and nature when you can't describe how important it is. Sometimes hearing something really dramatic and immersing yourself in it can be a powerful and personal experience, which is different from just verbal communication or visual.”

What brought you to this team?

“I really wanted to get into the side of communications that I didn't necessarily get all the time in the data-collecting setting. That's what I saw here. I was a little nervous because in the description it said that we'd be doing a lot with photography and writing. And I was like, I don't know too much about either of those things but... I'll just learn fast!

This project has got me to think more outside the box. I’ve been thinking more about individuals and personal experiences and how they affect everyone's views and influence what they're doing. I realize now more than ever how important it is to not separate human nature from human involvement with everything. There is always that human aspect of everything we do. How can it not be there, because we are humans ourselves. It has made me much more open-minded to the idea of the humanities and science and how creativity is literally everywhere, even in things that seem straight to the point or meticulous. I wasn't thinking about it that way before. I'm glad that I could expand my horizons.”

Hayley worked with Suzanne Loui's Sci Comm team during summer 2018. Learn more about their science communication work here and explore the Humans of Tyson project here.