Week Two: NIST, Capitol Hill, AIP, and More!

This week has FLOWN by! I went to NIST, Capitol Hill, and spent a lot of time at AIP in meetings, doing some research, and writing on my own. Here was the outline of my week: 

Monday (AIP): I helped the team prepare for releasing “This Week” at noon. I did not write anything for this newsletter, but I got to see the editing process! 

Tuesday (NIST): I went to NIST for their Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) meeting. The meeting was from 8:30am-4:00pm with some small breaks here and there. I did a LOT of note taking and the meeting was very long, but somehow the time still seemed to fly by. It was a lot of information to take in, but I’m happy I went because now I know a lot more about NIST than I did prior to going. I also got to meet Vint Cerf, the father of the internet! He’s on the VCAT, and I got to talk to him for about 10 minutes along with Nicholas, the NIST policy intern. It was a really awesome experience.  

Wednesday (Capitol Hill and AIP): I went to Capitol Hill for a House Science Subcommittee hearing on Ocean Exploration! I was particularly interested in this hearing because I really like environmental science. A lot of the topics covered in this hearing are topics I’ve learned about in my classes at TCNJ, so it was rewarding to see my college education overlap with this internship. After the hearing, I went back to AIP to meet with the team and tell them about my travels. 

Thursday (AIP): I finally started writing- like really writing! Mitch tasked me with writing a full-length bulletin on the Ocean Exploration hearing which could end up just being an exercise or could be published; he’s not sure yet. However, I will be contributing two short blurbs for the weekly newsletter! I was also tasked with summarizing some new bills that were introduced in Congress. 

Friday (AIP): It was finally time to wrap up for the week! I researched about SpaceX for one of my blurbs, finished my contributions to the weekly newsletter, and got a lot of edits on my practice bulletin.

This weekend I did a nice combination of relaxing and adventuring. After work on Friday, another intern, Terry, and I went to a restaurant for dinner and milkshakes. It's dangerous how much good food there is in DC. The place we went to was called The Hamilton and it was right near the Metro Center station. On Saturday, most of the group went to a Pride celebration at The Optical Society where we were able to watch the parade from a pretty high-up balcony. It was a great view! On Sunday, Gia, Nolan, Terry, and I went for a run/walk near the Potomac, and then Terry and I went to some museums later in the day. The Air and Space Museum was really crowded, but the National Gallery of Art was incredible. We also explored a small garden near the Hirshhorn Museum. The rest of the weekend, I did a lot of reading and watched a little bit of the TV show Scandal on Netflix (which takes place in DC, so it's cool to see all the spots in the show that are right down the street).

I'm very excited to see what week three has in store!