Friday, June 22, 2018
By:
The title of this blog has become the catch phrase for anything we interns do as a group.
When I was trying to think of what to write about throughout the week, it seemed like I had not done a lot compared to other weeks. Boy, was I wrong. Last Friday night, a majority of us went to a free talk and debriefing about the Cassini spacecraft that went to Saturn. Now, the event online stated it was in Powell Auditorium which, unbeknownst to us, is located in the Cosmos Club. This wouldn’t have been a big deal other than we had all just changed out of our work clothes and into sweats and t-shirts. The club is normally very fancy with dresses and jackets required and while this was not the case for our event, let’s just say we still stuck out pretty badly. Despite being obvious college students, we learned a good deal about the physics and engineering behind the spacecraft and the moons of Saturn, which Amanda and I were very excited about since we are both huge astro nerds! On the way home, Amanda and I stopped for rolled ice cream which we had never had before and had nice conversations over the dessert and the walk home. (I really lucked out having her as my roommate!)
That Saturday, I actually headed home (well, to meet my family in Delaware not my home town) for my cousin’s graduation party! It was very nice to see my mom, sister, aunts, uncles, grandma, and cousins. We had a lot of fun talking and catching up, as well as playing some cornhole! My team was winning 16-4 at one point but ended up losing. I headed back to DC that same night, where Sam, Daniel, and Phoebe met me at Union Station because it was late at night. I really appreciated them coming to pick me up because my mom didn’t want me travelling back to the dorm by myself (and frankly, neither did I) in the dark. The next day, we had an intern brunch and movie day. A bunch of people made breakfast foods from eggs to pancakes to potatoes and then we headed off to see the movie of the summer: Incredibles 2. And let me tell you- it was amazing! I am a HUGE Disney nerd and pretty much love any movie they put out, but this movie was special. There was a lot of female empowerment that I really appreciated! Definitely go see it if you have the chance.
And that was just the weekend! This week at work I learned some valuable information- how to upload to the Niels Bohr Library and Archives (NBLA) Facebook and Twitter, as well as how to upload information about physicists into the database to be published on the Physics History Network. The sites for social media outreach used by NBLA are super cool- there’s one to design posts to look pretty with quotes and pictures and one that you can schedule posts with, as well as see the analytics of your post! This tells you how many people your post reached, the likes, etc. Learning the database was a little difficult- there’s a lot of steps to inputting the information. Once you have your research done and uploaded into the database, you have to go through all the places and people you mentioned and add the person you were researching to all the people and places on their database! It’s pretty time consuming, but I am figuring it out pretty quickly.
Lastly, there was some fun stuff that happened through AIP and SPS this week. On Wednesday, all the interns got to attend the AIP all staff meeting. It was interesting to hear some of the inner workings of AIP from Michael Moloney, who is the CEO of AIP. And of course, all the interns had to introduce themselves to the group and share our favorite color (thanks, Brad). What was really awesome about the meeting (other than the post-meeting free barbecue food) was that part of it was to celebrate Pride! All the staff wore different clothes that were bright colors of the rainbow, which we then lined up in the order of the rainbow for a group picture. There are also plans throughout the year for AIP to incorporate more activities that promote diversity, which is amazing. Last night, on Thursday, SPS took the interns and the executive committee out on an Odyssey boat cruise for dinner and dancing. The boat goes up and down the Potomac River, right past the monuments and pretty close to where we live in Foggy Bottom. The views were amazing, especially when it got dark and the city lit up. And the food was DELICIOUS! I really enjoyed the night hanging out with my new friends and getting to know the executive committee of SPS a little bit. It was a nice way to spend the night and of course I got some good pictures for Instagram out of it!
Also: Happy birthday shout out to both Stephanie and Michael! Both their birthdays were this week!
Mikayla Cleaver