Highlights and Recommendations for Student Engagement from the Unified Forecast System Student Ambassador

The ongoing development of the community-based Unified Forecast System (UFS) brings together the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise to innovate and improve NOAA’s operational numerical Earth system prediction applications. The Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise is composed of academia, industry, public and private sector, and government. The UFS Student Ambassador role builds on work completed by previous William M. Lapenta interns, focusing on outreach and communication activities with academia. Outreach includes surveying students and academia attending the Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop (UIFCW) in July 2024. This presentation will highlight outreach activities accomplished by the UFS Student Ambassador throughout her William M. Lapenta internship. She will also highlight recommendations to the community on how to better engage with and involve students working with the UFS. These highlights will also include a summary of the recommendations from the academic survey. Additionally, the UFS Student Ambassador will provide updates to the UFS Student Engagement Plan, which was published last year by the first UFS Student Ambassador, to encourage the next generation of students to join the UFS community. The work completed by the UFS Student Ambassador is significant to improving community engagement within the UFS.