Sunday, June 13, 2021
By:
At the end of our first full week with the internship program, I logged out of my work email account, closed my computer, and accidentally fell asleep on my couch. My week was engaging, thrilling, and absolutely exhausting. I think the exhaustion is partly a byproduct of adjusting to a new rhythm and new responsibilities, but also a result of spending so many hours on my computer and in virtual meetings or webinars. I might have to break out my “blue light glasses,” which are supposed to minimize eye strain by filtering out blue light from electronic screens, but they probably just “work” via the placebo effect.
This week was pretty jam-packed for me as I continued learning about NIST and the Office of Advanced Manufacturing. My calendar was full of meetings, webinars, and online trainings. On Monday, I was able to attend NIST’s monthly communications meeting, which meant I had the opportunity to hear about outreach and writing efforts from communications experts within NIST. Two attendees started their careers as AIP interns, just like me! Later that day, I sat down with Robert Rudnitsky, the Associate Director at NIST’s Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO) (See? The acronyms never end!). Robert was kind enough to speak about his path from growing up in Brooklyn to his current role and all the adventures in between. One of my goals for this internship is networking, especially using the network that I have access to for learning more about the career trajectories of everyone in the office in the hopes that I might discover potential paths for myself too. I enjoyed learning about Robert’s past and listening to his advice. Monday evening, the SPS intern cohort got together for a game night. We played Pictionary — quickly becoming one of our favorite virtual games — and chatted about the overwhelming and exciting parts of our internships so far.
Tuesday and Wednesday were also filled with learning opportunities, mostly in the form of big virtual meetings, webinars, and some trainings on how to use data and Excel more effectively. I started brainstorming ideas for longer-term summer projects, but in the meantime I worked on a couple of smaller tasks. I continued revisions on the Manufacturing USA Wikipedia page, though I faced a small set-back when I discovered that, since I’m working in the Manufacturing USA office, I am technically not allowed to edit the Wikipedia page directly. Luckily, my colleagues came up with some potential work-arounds. I also started compiling links for individual Manufacturing USA institute newsletter sign-ups, which gave me an excuse to poke around their websites again and learn more about the institute goals and programs. One of the other small tasks that needed to get done was updating the institute contact sheet with new positions and contact information, which again allowed me to hyper-focus on each institute and determine the organizational structure of the institute.
On Wednesday, I had my first individual mentoring meeting with Lisa and Robert. We spoke about potential summer projects, but they also shared useful advice and insights which really made a difference in my approach to my work and also my confidence level. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out Gina’s intern blog post from Week 1, where she talks about imposter syndrome and how to combat it. I definitely have been experiencing imposter syndrome — where I question if I’m good enough to have this opportunity, and internally criticize myself whenever I make a mistake or have to ask for help. Still, I embrace imposter syndrome as part of the journey, and my mentoring meeting was helpful because it reminded me that I’m just starting to learn the ropes at NIST and mistakes are part of that learning curve.
Towards the end of the week, I had a couple more networking opportunities. On Thursday, Brad Conrad led a professional networking workshop for the SPS intern cohort, which gave us all an excuse to practice our elevator pitches. Later that day, I attended the American Association for an event put on by Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellow Affinity Group at the invitation of Zack, an AAAS fellow placed in our office. Zack introduced Tanya Das, the Chief of Staff at the Office of Science in the Department of Energy, and Tanya shared her experiences working in science policy. Her unique perspective, brought forth by her background in science, mirrored many of my values and aspirations and it was inspiring to hear her speak.
On Friday, I joined a happy hour event with the SPS executive committee, complete with — of course — a few rounds of online Pictionary. This time, we used a physics-themed word bank, which made for some very entertaining drawings, especially of Albert Einstein. At the bottom of this post, you can see a screenshot I snapped of the cohort and executive committee post-Pictionary.
At the very end of my day on Friday, I called my mentor, Lisa, to touch base on one of the tasks I’ve been working on. She was very helpful (as she always is), but it was also really nice to check in with her and hear more about the intricacies and moving parts of the office. I have some larger tasks coming up this next week, and I’m excited to hit the ground running on Monday!
Cheers,
Casey Roepke (she/her)