Kayla Mans

Undergraduate Fellow

Growing up in both houses and apartments in Memphis, Kayla’s experience in the outdoors varied as much as her interests coming to college. After meandering for a couple of years across climatology and geology, she found a home in the environmental humanities.

“One of the greatest messages I got from these courses is that we don’t know how to communicate certain topics because we conflate our emotions with scientific facts. I think a lot of why I’m into education, speaking, and communicating is because my mom’s a lifelong teacher. She’s very well versed in the art of the profession as well as the standards. I respect her in a lot of ways. And now I definitely got the teaching gene.”

For now, she isn’t going the traditional teaching route. But she still has her sights set on serving the community in her own way.

“I do want to go to law school after this but I’m not sure if I want to be a lawyer. I want to work as someone who educates the community and acts as a bridge between the scientists and the people their studies are impacting. There’s a lot more to law than just being in the courtroom. Policies affect people in so many ways they don’t understand.”

Kayla worked with Susan Flowers to support educational programming during summer 2019. Learn more about all of the Tyson education programs here.