Nicole Everage, 2026 AIP FYI Science Policy News Intern
Nicole Everage
Biography
SPS Chapter: University of California, Los Angeles
Hello! My name is Nicole Everage, and I am excited to be the 2026 AIP FYI Science Policy News Intern! I recently finished my third year at UCLA as an Astrophysics major, and I am excited for my final year of undergrad! At UCLA, I love to be an active part of my community and am involved with many different organizations across campus! I am on the board of our SPS UCLA Chapter, a member of Sigma Pi Sigma professional fraternity, and an executive board member for my Panhellenic Sorority Alpha Delta Pi. I also participate in our UCLA Model United Nations club, where I am able to blend my interests in public policy and STEM related fields! These organizations have helped push me to be a better person, student, and friend, every day, and have taught me how to become the best version of myself over the past three years here at UCLA. I am beyond excited to come to Washington D.C. this summer and learn all I can at this amazing opportunity!
Internship
Host: AIP FYI Science Policy News
Internship Blog
Week 10
Goodbye DC!
I am so sad that this internship has ended, it truly has been such a wonderful experience, and I am so thankful I have had the chance to meet so many amazing people. This week was mainly full of preparations for the end of the summer and making the most of our final days in Washington DC as an intern group. We started off the week with one final attempt at making it on time for trivia at the local bar, and we finally succeeded! I think they somehow knew this was our last week. We did pretty good, not as well as our first attempt, but it was still so fun to all be together and work to try and solve all of the questions. The next night, we did an internship game night with everyone, and I brought one of my friends from UCLA (Hi Hayden!) To join us as she was also in DC for her own internship. I love our internship game nights; we always have so much fun, and I love learning how to play all the games everyone brings. I was so happy to also spend the evening with Hayden as I hadn’t got a chance to see her all summer, so it was really nice to meet up! Wednesday was technically the official last day of the internship as the next two days were reserved for final presentation practices. It was quite a sad ending, and as I worked on the different sections of the Weekly and Monthly newsletter for AIP FYI, I couldn’t believe I had been helping out for over two months! It’s crazy to think how long ago I started and how much I learned from the amazing people at AIP. On Thursday, all the interns went into ACP DC to practice our final presentations with each other and then headed to Canes for a final group lunch! I am definitely going to miss these lunches (and Canes) when I leave! We also ended the night with an official farewell dinner at a nice restaurant on the water, which was a really cool experience. And finally, the last day arrived. I was quite nervous about my presentation since I always get nervous speaking in front of others, and I was later in the schedule, so I had a lot of time to sit and be nervous. Regardless, I had a great time sharing what I had done this summer, and loved listening to the projects everyone had worked so hard on. These interns are so smart! After presentations, I had to run home and pack my entire room up for my early flight the next day. We all got together that evening to hang out for a final farewell, and then the next day, I was suddenly in California again! I am so sad that this experience is over, I had an amazing summer and am so thankful that I got to experience such a fabulous internship with so many great mentors, interns, and other people who helped us along the way. A big thank you to my mentor Jacob and the AIP FYI Team Lindsay and Clare! You guys are the very best ever! And another huge thank you to the entire SPS and AIP teams that made this internship possible, I can’t thank you enough. I hope the next interns know how lucky they are to have this chance! Thank you for reading my blog this summer!
Lots of love – Nicole Everage
Week 9
Wrapping Up!
As the end of the internship comes close, I realized there was still so much in DC I hadn’t seen! To remedy this issue, Sierra and I went out to see the US Botanical Gardens, which were absolutely beautiful. They had different geographical regions split up by climate to show the different kinds of plants that inhabit each. It was really cool to walk through the different places in the gardens and not only see the difference but feel it too! The gardens were also huge, with so many different displays and areas. There was also an educational session for young kids, and the guy working there was kind enough to give us a demonstration since no one else was there waiting. He showed us how plants pollinate and reproduce, which was something I hadn’t learned about since middle school, so it was nice to get a refresher. We then walked through the gift shop and played some of the games they had there. After the gardens, we stopped by the Native American Museum, which showed some really cool art and artifacts from Indigenous cultures across America. It did kind of look like they were in progress of filling in more of the exhibits though, but what we did see was really cool! Finally, to end our long day, we stopped by a street fair that was happening where there were booths and farmers markets. We looked through all that they had to offer, and Sierra picked up some groceries for dinner, and I got a map of California to take home and frame! Just a few days later, the intern group met up to take a tour of the Air and Space Museum, which was my favorite museum we got to see this summer! It is absolutely huge and has so many cool pieces of history throughout. Getting to hear the history for our tour guide, Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony was very interesting, and I got to learn so much! 10/10 Museum Tour!
Week 8
Shakespeare!
The internship is winding down! I can’t believe we only have two more weeks left; it feels like we just got here! For the most part, this week was pretty chill. I continued with the regular internship work that I have gotten in the habit of doing to helelp FYI with getting the weekly newsletters up. As the weeks progressed and I have gotten more used to the regular tasks, I have found it interesting to see the similarities from week to week in things we are doing and things that we are covering, like what is popular in the news at one point in time vs. another. As the end of the week rolled around, we got tickets to watch Macbeth with the intern group, which I was really excited for. The actors did such an amazing job, and I was really surprised that they were able to cry on command, I really thought that was something people just did in movies. They also used puppets in the play for other characters, such as the witches and the kids needed in certain scenes, which was really funny at times. The play was quite long, but I was very interested the whole time. It was sometimes hard to follow since they were talking in Shakespeare-old English, but since I knew the story, I was able to follow along a bit better. It was a great play, and a fun way to round out the week!
Week 7
A fun visitor!
This week started off great with a trivia game on Monday at a bar right near GW campus. We placed 2nd, and it was our first try! The questions were fun and it was a really nice way to kick off the week with the intern group. This week was also an exciting week as my girlfriend flew in from California to come to visit me for a few days, and we had a lot on our sight-seeing list to cross off. We started off the week by trying some new coffee places to do our work at as I was working on FYI writing and she is taking summer classes. As the weekend rolled around, we wanted to go see the White House, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. We took the metro over and made a very long walk in the very hot heat around the monuments. I had not had a chance to see them before, so it was really cool to see everything up close! We were extremely tired by the end of our trip, which took most of the day, so we ended our excursions with a very long nap. It was a great week, and I can’t wait for the next!
Week 6
Happy 250th!
This week was a really fun week for our intern activities! On Wednesday, Amelie took us to the Niels Bohr Library and Archives where we got the super cool opportunity to see some very interesting pieces of science history. From old pictures and records to notebooks and biographies, the archives hold so many cool pieces that are so vital to the history of science. After we got a chance to flip through some of the pieces they showed us, we got a tour of their physical archives. The archives are kept in very specific conditions to preserve what they are keeping there, so I was very cold for most of the tour! We rounded out the day with a presentation on Oral Histories, and their importance in recording past events and life stories. As the week continued, we made it to Saturday, which was the 250th Fourth of July! I think it was cool that we got to be in the country’s capital during this holiday, as so many people were celebrating. As a group, we all went out to see the fireworks, and despite the delay, they were definitely worth waiting for. They were absolutely huge and lit up the entire sky. So many people stopped their cars in the middle of the road just to get out and watch! It was a great day and a fun way to celebrate!
Week 5
Four Seasons Hotel!
This week we had the special chance to have dinner with the AIP board at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baltimore! This dinner was an amazing chance to speak with such talented and accomplished people and learn about their amazing different careers. I was really excited to attend, so after we finished our internship work for the day on Friday, we all piled into a few Ubers, and took the two-hour drive to Baltimore. It was quite a bumpy ride over and tons of traffic, so I was very relieved once we made it. I have never been to Baltimore, so it was really cool to see a new city! We got to see a lot of cool ships docked that were covered in lights. Once we made it to the hotel, we took the trip up 29 floors to the very tippy top of the building where the restaurant is. The view was gorgeous, but I was a little worried about being so high up! We started the night off by getting to know some of the board members and introducing ourselves to others who were attending before we sat down for dinner. The menu looked delicious (and very fancy), and it was great to continue our conversations over a meal. Once dessert hit, all of the interns switched seats to speak to some more board members before hopping in another uber for a long drive back. I had such a great time at this event and learned a lot from the people I had the chance to speak to. I am really glad that SPS and AIP gave us the chance to attend this event!
Week 4
Booked and Busy!
Monday:
On Monday, I had a pretty regular day working from home for FYI. I spent most of my day on my computer and catching up on some things from over the weekend and getting everything in order for the week ahead. On Monday, FYI is typically working on putting out the Weekly Newsletter and organizing the different trackers and information tabs on the FYI website. I spent most of my day going through different information and news sources that we could possibly use in the future. I am also looking at different topics to decide what I want to propose for my own article in the future. Me and the other FYI Intern, Aashreya, were given the opportunity to write an entire article fully on our own to be published under our name, so we are working hard to come up with the best topic to write about. After the work day, the other interns and I went to a local bar in hopes of getting in on their trivia night, but we were a bit too late and had too large of a group to squeeze in. We did stay at the restaurant for some desserts though!
Tuesday:
On Tuesday, we got to attend the Dinner Cruise event with the AIP and SPS leadership, and it was such a wonderful experience! The weather was perfect for a boat ride, and we got to see a fabulous sunset at the end of our ride. It was so fun to talk to so many people who play a part in running AIP and SPS, and a lot of the people who made this internship possible! The food was also amazing, my favorite being the chocolate cake we had for dessert. This was definitely one of my favorite events so far this summer!
Wednesday:
This week was packed with fun intern activities! After a great night on the boat, we all woke up bright and early and made a very long commute over to NIST to get a tour of the campus. After a nice nap on the NIST bus, we arrived and went straight into a mini tour to show some of the cool standards that were on display. It was so interesting to see things that you never expected needed a standard, and all the things that have been collected over the years. We also got to take a picture of Newton’s apple tree, which was a fun detour! Once we were finished with the museum, we got to sit down and have a Q&A lunch with some people who work at NIST, and what their path has been through their education and professional career. It was really inspiring to hear about everything they had accomplished, and all the unique paths they took to get to the same place. We finished lunch and headed to some of the labs in the building to get a tour. It was cool to see some of the machinery and equipment that they had and to hear about all the experiments they had in progress. After our day long tour, we came back to our dorms and went out to celebrate Ethan’s 21st birthday!
Thursday:
Thursday is typically the day that we go in person to the ACP DC office, so I got dressed and took the metro in. I am finally getting a bit used to how the metro works, despite the very short trip from the GWU dorms to the ACP DC office. I spent most of the day doing some research for my future article and talking with other interns to brainstorm ideas. No pictures from today, but Thursdays are always my favorite days of the week!
Friday:
We got Friday off this week for Juneteenth (Happy Juneteenth!), so the other interns and I decided to go to the National History Museum to check out some of the exhibits they were presenting. They had a couple of exhibits related to space and physics, so it was cool to see a lot of the stuff we learned about in class in a museum exhibit! One of my favorites was the geode and gem collection they had. I loved seeing all of the bright colors that are naturally found on Earth! This day off was a nice mix of sightseeing and relaxing, and a great start to a long weekend!
Week 3
Finally Done with Finals
You heard that right! I am finally free. Now that my exams ended this past Thursday, more exciting content is coming to this blog. I was still in hardcore study more Monday through Thursday, but with my last exam ending at 2pm on Thursday, I can start to experience DC a little more. Friday was a normal day of internship and catching up on some things I had neglected during my study sessions, like emails and appointments, but luckily it didn’t take too much time. On Saturday, we explored an art fair about an hour away from the dorms where we saw some amazing local artwork and listened to some great street music. Despite the heat, it was so cool to see people showing their talents in so many ways. Once we got back, I had the chance to attend the orchestra, and I have not had that much fun in so long! I love classical music and seeing all the extremely talented musicians play with so much passion was a lovely way to end my evening. The commute was about 2 hours each way, but it was well worth it! I am excited for more exploring and activities to come now that I am a bit freer, so tune in next week for even more fun!
Week 2
Second Week In!
Unfortunately, this was not a very exciting week for me. I have my finals this upcoming week, so any minute I was not doing anything internship related, I was studying! I do know all of the other interns did some really exciting things this week, so I am excited for my finals to be over so that I can join them on their adventures! From what I did outside of studying, I had a great time! Having the chance to practice my writing skills through this internship, as well as learning about things in the news I may have missed before, has been very eye-opening. I am also learning how to better digest a lot of information that is presented from the government or political bodies that can be difficult to understand at first glance. It’s only week 2, and I am already learning so much! I can’t wait to see everything I will learn by the end of the summer! I can’t offer up many pictures of my week since I spent most of my time inside, so here is a wonderful picture of my study set up. See you next week!
Week 1
Welcome Week!
5am West Coast time was when I started my travel day to Washington DC! I woke up bright and early and finished moving out of my sorority house at UCLA where my amazing roommate had offered to drive me to LAX in the wee hours of the morning. After a quick drive, I was tasked with hauling my three very large bags through security until I was able to get them checked and set off to find my gate. Luckily, the 6-hour flight was manageable, as I slept through most of it, only waking to get the mandatory in-flight biscotti offered by the flight attendants. Soon, I had touched down on the other side of the country and was ready to make my way to George Washington University. It wasn’t without a few hiccups though, and I was very confused with the layout of the non-traditional campus and ordered my first uber to the wrong location. Not being able to carry my bags to the correct location, I had to order another uber to bring me back to the other side of campus, where I belonged. Meeting my roommate, Amelie, and all the other SPS interns was so much fun after we all made it to our dorm rooms. Some of us too that Memorial Day to get a headstart on our sightseeing, and we took a walk to the Washington Monument. The weather was rainy, but quite sticky and humid, nothing like the dry California weather I am used too, and I was surprised at the number of people wearing rainboots and tank tops at the same time. I spent the rest of the day catching up on school work and missed lectures in the comfort of my newly decorated dorm. The next two days were filled with crowded metro rides, orientation and HR meetings, where the internship cohort got to meet the wonderful people at AIP who were making this experience possible. We listened to many presentations, and learned about what this summer was going to look like for each of us. On our second day, we attended a wonderful lecture about Marie Curie and her life, given by the eloquent Dava Sobel, who spoke about her book ‘The Elements of Marie Curie’, and all she had learned during her research. The talk was inspiring for a young woman in STEM, and gave me a better perspective on the privileges I now have perusing higher education as a woman. Then, the internship actually began! I started my first day learning about the writing process at AIP FYI, and what we are looking for in terms of sources. I also met the other AIP FYI intern, and I am so grateful to have someone else going through this journey with me. Two days of reading, writing and note taking concluded, and the first weekend of the summer arrived. Unfortunately, I am confined to my dorm room as my Spring Quarter at UCLA hasn’t ended yet. I spent my weekend studying for my finals coming up in a week, and getting excited for my days free of school coming. It was a wonderful kick off to this internship, and I am so excited to see what’s to come!
