Drawing from her own experience, Valley astronomy professor Luna Sprinkle fosters a safe learning environment for learners of all backgrounds.
By Ava Rosate, Staff Writer
From the classroom to the cosmos, Luna Sprinkle, a first-year Astronomy professor at Valley is making the planetarium a comfortable place to explore the stars through inclusivity and encouragement.
Since the age of seven, Sprinkle has been looking to the night sky for answers regarding the mysteries of the universe and its origin. The curiosity followed her through her formative years to her college degree work and well through her professional field - but the 27-year-old astronomy professor's academic journey was not an easy one.
“The best picture I can paint of my academic career was not very pretty,” the astronomy professor admits. “I was like a beat-down pickup truck with its two back wheels missing and its back end dragging on the road with sparks flying as I crossed the finish line.”
While pursuing her degree in physics at UCLA, Sprinkle decided to pick up a second major –– meteorology. The double major was accepted into her meteorology graduate program during her last semester, but she failed a single class imperative to her graduation, forcing her to drop the entire second major.
“Time had to pass and I had to realize I was still pursuing what I loved,” said Sprinkle. “It taught me that things don't go perfectly. I had a goal and it didn’t work out, but I am still doing what I love.”
By leveraging her own academic journey, the professor creates a learning environment that empowers students to share their thoughts and questions –– a setting that was not conducive to her own. As a neurodivergent individual, the 27-year-old professor understands the difficulty students face when trying to communicate their thoughts in the STEM field.
“Students in STEM classrooms are reluctant to communicate with their teacher or even raise their hand during lectures,” Sprinkle said regarding the classroom environment. “I have seen teachers reply in a nonconducive way to students or peers who judge others for asking questions, that is the type of approach that drives people away.”
Although Sprinkle is only in the first several months of her teaching career, she possesses a deep understanding of the elements needed to motivate and guide students toward their academic goals.
“I want to be someone who is my unapologetic self to students,” said Sprinkle. “I want to make sure that students can feel like they exist in the classroom.”
The first-year professor urges their students to take adequate time to slow down and take mental health breaks when feeling burnt out.
“If your mental health isn't in check, it makes everything else more difficult,” Sprinkle said about student burnout. “ Slow down rather than trying to speed up to make up for mistakes, and take honest breaks —not the guilty breaks where you're spending your energy thinking about everything you ought to be doing. You deserve rest, you don't need to justify or earn it.”