Sunday, June 2, 2019
By:
After months of waiting, the day had finally arrived. I was in Washington, D.C., meeting my fellow interns, and starting my internship. I was so scared that I would miss my flight or that I would get lost trying to get to the dorm, but everything worked out and I made here safe and sound.
Immediately I started in on the task of learning everyone’s names. All the interns are extremely friendly, and we share a lot of common interests. Many of us went and explored some of the National Mall and the memorials there on Monday. After some exploring, we went to see some of the Memorial Day parade. Everything was so fantastic, the only drawback being that it’s quite hot and humid here in D.C., but I persevered. Later in the week, another group of us went to Jazz in the Park, got dinner, and had a blast. We’ve also been getting together a fair amount and just talking about what we’ve all been doing with our individual internships. It’s been amazing getting to know my fellow interns and learning about their journeys to this point. We all come from such different backgrounds and locations all over the country, and despite all being interested in physics, we have such unique destinations that we want to take our expertise to. Some of us want to teach, some of us want to do research, some of us want to write, and some of us want to go into policy-making. I didn’t realize how versatile physics really is until speaking with everyone here.
Exploring and getting to know my peers was super enjoyable, but my favorite part was actually starting the internship. I’m working with AAPT, and for me to get a chance to work with this organization at this point in my career is comparable to someone studying acting staring in a film directed by Steven Spielberg before they graduate from art school. I am truly honored and excited that I get a chance to work with this organization that I’ve been involved in for three years, read many articles coming out of, and have gone to many conferences hosted by them.
Currently I'm working with Robert Hilborn, who is the Associate Executive Officer of AAPT. He’s given me two projects that I can start to work on. I’ve started on one project and am excited to see the final results of it and move on to the second. The first project I’m working on is to look at data from a variety of different sources to find the amount of physics bachelor’s degrees that have been awarded at numerous institutions over the past twenty or so years. We are comparing the number awarded ten years ago and comparing it to the number currently being awarded to see which institutions are seeing a large gain. It’s fascinating and important, and something that can be used to help those numbers grow even larger in the future. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of people in the Statistical Research Center as well to help me obtain more data and advance the project further. We’re also going to be comparing these gains with the gains in the number of physics teachers currently coming out of these institutions.
I’m really excited to see what the coming weeks hold. Whether it’s getting to know the cohort better, exploring more of the city, or doing more work with AAPT, I don’t think I’ll be bored at any point.
Amber Sammons