Friday, August 9, 2013
By:
And just as I expected, this last week totally flew by. On Sunday my brother came to town to spend the last 4 days of my internship with me, and so he had to see our final presentations. I showed him Georgetown, we walked down M street along with some other interns, and we got to Georgetown University, which I must say is a beautiful campus. And then, the week started…
On Monday, we went with the other interns to ACP, and we practiced our presentations with some SPS Staff. We received feedback and some constructive critic from the SPS Staff and the other interns as well. They gave us advice on how to improve our presentations – how to make them look clearer, more understandable, and more appealing. The next day, it was show time. We got to ACP early in the morning, and the conference room started filling up with mentors, bosses, representatives, family, and friends. I was the third one to go, and even though I was a bit nervous, I wasn’t as much as I thought I would be. The presentations were quite remarkable; everybody did a great job and enthusiastically presented their summer project. A lot of questions were asked, and I believe the audience was very interested in all the topics presented. We then had a tasty lunch, but it ended quickly, because a State Department tour was waiting on us. At the State Department, Dr. Jim Borgardt showed us around. He took us to a conference room where three people were waiting on us to talk to us about what they do, having a physics background. It was very interesting hearing these people talk.
On Wednesday, we had the closing breakfast and evaluations. It was very nice, but sad at the same time, since we had to say our farewells. We wrote thank-you cards, had some laughs, and cleaned our workplace, which has been there for us these last 10 weeks. And so it ended, a beautiful internship, which gave me so many experiences, made me meet so many people and friends, and helped me use my physics background in a very interesting area.
The next day my brother and I took a bus to NYC, where my uncle and cousin were waiting for us. We are spending some couple days here, and we have gotten to see so many great things. We saw the Phantom of the Opera, we visited the Statue of Liberty in a boat, we went to the Museum of Modern Art, and much more. Today I claim it will be a good day, and I think it already started very well, since it’s my birthday, and even though we don’t have any plans yet, you know, this city… never sleeps…
Thanks for reading!
Jose "Ro" Avila