Friday, August 9, 2013
By:
The beginning portion of this week was dedicated to wrapping up my internship experience with the Society of Physics Students (SPS) at the American Center of Physics (ACP). The commute out to College Park was a lot longer than my usual commute to the Ford Office House Building since ACP is located in Maryland. Monday was set aside for practicing our final presentations and for receiving feedback from our peers. Tuesday was the day of our final presentations where we all presented our internship experiences to our mentors, friends, family, peers, and the ACP staff. All the presentations went very well and it was great to hear about the other SPS interns experiences and what they learned during the past 9.5 weeks. My presentation was last and was followed by some excellent questions like, "How do you meet with your representatives?" Following the presentations, my family and I had lunch at the Mather Internship Table, which was composed of Dr. John Mather, Jennifer Greenamoyer (AIP mentor), Pamitha Weerasinghe (Science Committee mentor), and Nikki Sanford and her family.
Later that day all the SPS interns went to the State Department for a tour where we met with a couple of physicists and astronomers working there. They talked about how they use their science backgrounds in their work to create policies and showed us another career that a person with a physics background can do. Wednesday was the final day our SPS internship which we spent filling out evaluations, signing thank you cards, and going a tour of the different societies located within the American Center of Physics building. More specifically, we went to the Niels Bohr Library, the Archives, and met with the directors of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). The rest of the day was dedicated to packing and hanging out with the other SPS interns before we all head out on our different paths.
This has been such a wonderful internship experience. I gained valuable insights into how science policy is conducted at the Capitol and clarified my careers goals. I also met many wonderful people ranging from new friends to professional contacts. I look forward to using the skills gained from this internship and from my education in my career.
Katherine Stankus