Sunday, June 9, 2019
By:
This week was amazing, and it started right from the start. On Monday, my mentor told me that if I wanted to, I could help out Rebecca Vieyra, who was the mentor for previous AAPT SPS interns, prepare for a STEM+C Workshop and even attend some of the workshop. This meant that I would get to go to Phoenix for a couple days and learn about a new coding program that has been and could be utilized in the classroom to improve students’ learning experiences. I’m really excited to see what I can learn from this experience in a few weeks.
Before I could head to Phoenix, I have to do some preparations for that conference and some of the other ones that are coming up this summer. I went to have lunch and discuss some details with Rebecca on Monday, so I could better understand what would be expected of me and any way I could help. She gave me a lot of tasks that I could help her with, and I couldn’t wait to start. I was so excited to talk with her, because she is the reason that I am still on the path I am today. My junior year of high school, I was really worried that studying to be a physics teacher would have been a limiting career, and I wanted to make more of a difference. My physics teacher knew her and got me in contact with her, and after one phone call with her, and hearing about all she did with NASA and AAPT, I wasn’t as worried anymore, and haven’t looked back since. She is currently working with the Organization of American States and doing a lot to improve education across all the Americas, and I got to visit her office for a bit, which was just amazing. Knowing that the path I’m on can lead me not only to helping at a national level, but an international level, really makes me all the more confident in my choice of career.
Bob, my mentor, was out for the majority of the week, preparing for and attending various workshops. Despite his absence, I still had a lot to do. Most of my work the past week has been helping Rebecca to prepare for the upcoming STEM+C Workshop and the Master Teacher Policy Fellowship. I’ve gotten to put my hands into a little bit of everything, creating spreadsheets, making orders, networking/communicating, etc. I thought I would feel more overwhelmed than I did, given how much I had on my plate, but I felt surprising comfortable having so much to do. It was nice being able to learn how to do things I had never done (like use a company credit card) and know that I was working to help AAPT and other physics teachers get the most out of these workshops.
Friday, Rebecca invited me over to her house for dinner and to meet her family. Her family is so nice, and she was an excellent cook. She took me for a walk around the Capitol, and we got to know a little more about each other and our reasons for choosing the path we’re on. We also discussed more about what I should work on to prepare for the workshop and my trip to Phoenix next Sunday. Aside from finishing up the preparations of the STEM+C Workshop this week, and the other SPS events coming up, I’m also excited because I’ll get to talk with Bob about some of my findings in the physics bachelor’s degrees data I’ve been looking at.
Amber Sammons