Princesa VanBuren – SciMent Instructor
Princesa VanBuren is the instructor of Sci Ment and before that the director of the Future Scientist Discovery Program for six years. She is currently working for the State of Minnesota Environmental Quality Board. and is also finishing up her master’s thesis in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. When she is finished, she hopes to either work for a private engineering firm or a government agency, although she says she still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up. She has a long history with scientific research and the science fair, beginning in the sixth grade. As both a junior and senior in high school Princesa went to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, coming in second place her senior year; and as a senior was also a Westinghouse (now Intel) Science Talent Search Finalist.
Princesa is quite the adventurer, with some of her favorite activities being backpacking, canoeing, camping, and archery. Princesa also enjoys traveling all over, from Russia to California to Sweden and beyond, and bringing back really fun games from those far away places too! Princesa loves working with kids, especially in the science fair. She believes that it is a great way to reach out to students and teach them many useful life skills, as well as scientific ones. Along with being a great teacher, she also is quite good at public speaking, and knows a thing or two about the ways of working well with people. She has experienced a lot in her thus far short life, and loves to share her wisdom with whoever wants to hear it!