Tuesday, July 14, 2020
By:
Week 6 is over, and the summer is moving too quickly. It has been one of those weeks that flew by and now I don’t even know what I’m doing. (Seriously I know I worked on bios, but it feels like time is moving too quickly.) I think I am improving on narrowing down accomplishments to a short biography now, but it still feels like I could write entire books for some of these fellows.
We also had our intern picnic this week (virtually of course; BYOF). We had a great time playing games and chatting with new people including other intern’s mentors that we had not gotten to meet yet. We even played some Jackbox games in one of my breakout rooms. It was nice to get to see everybody in the SPS office as well and get to hear Brad make some terrible puns.
From a political side of things, ICE announced changes that would result in international students not being able to stay in the United States if they are taking only online classes for the semester because of COVID-19. ICE advised students to either return home or transfer schools if their university is online only for the fall. This policy would impact many of my friends if universities had to go entirely online again and many universities are taking a stand against it and even writing a brief on how it would have a negative impact both on students and the education system as a whole. I urge you to call your representatives about this and voice your concerns for how this will negatively impact our education system.
And just a little more politics because it has been an awful week for politics. The Trump administration is pushing for schools to be fully reopened in the fall regardless of the state of COVID-19. He does not want to see any social distancing guidelines in place that would result in students only coming to school some days a week. My fiancé and my mom work for the public-school system, so this is causing a great deal of personal stress. Thankfully Ohio is trying to put some precautions into place, but we will still have schools open again in August, so there is a scary time.
In some positivity for the week, I moved! I am all moved into my new apartment in Toledo. And by I am all moved in I mean I am writing this blog post from the one spot in the living room that is not currently covered in boxes. But after an eventful time building Ikea furniture (including some missing dowels and a misdrilled board), all of the furniture is finally in one piece and I am able to start putting things away. My textbooks have already found a home on the bookshelf! Although I am still avoiding studying for the 0thattempt, an attempt that does not count against my two attempts but can result in passing, for my qualifiers. Apparently studying quantum just doesn’t sound like the best summer activity.
Abigail Ambrose