Michael Welter, 2018 SPS Communications

Biography

SPS Chapter: High Point University

I am a senior at High Point University in sunny High Point, North Carolina, pursuing a B.S. in Physics while minoring in Math and Graphic Design. Our HPU SPS community has participated in and initiated many annual outreach events that work to engage the children and families of the surrounding community–--events that have earned our chapter local and national recognition--–and I am proud to have helped coordinate those inspiring experiences.

I’m currently the president of our local SPS chapter and also the president of an on-campus organization that I’ve named HPUminds: a group of physics and computer science students working with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to build a self-driving, autonomous golf cart campus tour guide. I’m using my background in physics and graphic design to become a scientific illustrator to help bridge the ever-widening communication gap between STEM researchers and the general public. I’ve started a freelance graphic design business called Brush & Beaker Designs.

Internship

Host: Society of Physics Students

Project

Abstract

The intersection of art and science has a history dating as far back as the Renaissance with revolutionaries like Da Vinci and Michelangelo, but what is the current state of that relationship? During my summer with the Society of Physics Students as the Communications Intern I got a first-hand look into the role that graphic design plays in the seemingly unartistic world of physics research and outreach. Color, composition, and font choice all play an integral role in an audience’s perception of information, but is often overlooked as insignificant by STEM researchers. By examining how the general public responds to visual media and incorporating fundamental design concepts to scientific articles, posters, and infographics we can begin to diminish the commonly assumed “right-brain/left-brain” view of art and science–which, in turn, benefits both the public by making complex data more digestible, and the scientific community by allowing the public/governing bodies to make more informed policy decisions.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Joining the SPS National Team

“Hey, you know those spherical cows? I need a spherical space cow.” -Brad Conrad, Director of SPS, to me, the 2018 SPS Communications and Web Development Intern, on Day One.

When I enrolled at High Point University as a physics major, I never imagined that I would one day be working directly with the SPS national organization in Washington DC. Though, looking back I can easily see the milestones that were leading me on this wonderfully physics-y path: joining the HPU SPS chapter, volunteering at HPUniverse Day , becoming a physics tutor, attending PhysCon 2016 , reorganizing our physics major study space, being elected VP of our SPS chapter, attending the AAPT Winter Meeting 2018 ... All amazing opportunities that helped guide my ambitions and allowed me to meet my extraordinary friends and mentors.

“What if we made a point chicken? Like, just a dot and a little speech bubble that says “bawk” or something.”

It’s hard to find an environment where you feel like everyone is on the same page and where everyone is supportive of each other’s ideas---but that has been my first impression of the SPS national environment. They have boards to discuss how to improve office life, notes and awards for people that go above and beyond to help colleagues, cake to celebrate employee birthdays; not to mention they promote physical and mental well-being through access to a gym, showers, quiet rooms and unlimited coffee/tea.

With this productive environment, it’s easy to stay focused on my intern tasks, which include (but are not limited to) creating and revamping SPS promotional material (hence the spherical space cow and point chicken), editing/organizing images and articles for journals, revamping outdated website templates and even contacting SPS members across the country. I thoroughly enjoy the work, and spending time with Brad, James, Danielle and the other interns is a recipe for a great time. I have a feeling the next nine weeks are going to fly by.

(A message from Week 8 Michael: I’ve taken the time to incorporate a lot of links to various websites and pages in my future blogs. I highly encourage you to navigate to them so that you get the full picture of what my experience has been like!)

Physics is Good For You

“This is my absolute dream job. I seriously love what I do.” -Brad Conrad at the conclusion of a staff meeting that he attended despite officially being on vacation.

Life in Washington DC is peculiar---in one part of town you’ll find massive monuments dedicated to those who spent their lives (and often times lost their lives) fighting for the American Dream; next door to that you’ll find the buildings in which our elected leaders discuss and vote on our future; down the street you’ll find the most diverse collection of restaurants imaginable-but the pecularity isn’t found in the scenary---it’s found in the passion of the people.

I’ve stayed at the office for about 45 hours this week designing posters, t-shirts and business cards, writing and organizing content for journals, and preparing content for social media posts and websites. Outside of the office, I saw the Capitols win the Stanley Cup, attended a beautiful Pride Parade, listened to live reggae music in the sculpture garden, wrote a chapter report, got a night viewing of the tidal basin and got to eat and live with some of the most driven young people I’ve ever met. There’s nothing more refreshing than being surrounded by people who are vigorously pursuing their passions--and then finding yourself keeping pace with them.

Looking forward to another week. Here’s the shirt I’ve been working on.

Party in the SPS

Imagine: a crowded dance floor, flashing lights, neon glow sticks, fancy clothes, party hats, gourmet desserts, over 25 SPS employees, interns, and executives getting down to V.I.C.'s Wobble, wading down the Potomac on a dinner cruise.

That’s how I spent my 21st birthday on Thursday.

Life’s kind of crazy like that---you’re born (a tiny, drooling glob of human with wide eyes and a mushy head), spend the first 10 years of your life abosorbing information (learning to eat, walk, talk, get dressed, use a toilet, and write), and spend the next six years questioning everything (Who am I? Why am I? What’s the point? Where am I going?). But then something interesting happens...Vague existential questions become less daunting and more investigative (Who do I want to be? What kind of job do I want?). And as time goes on, answers start to form! Each passing year I found myself analyzing my life (16yo: My name is Michael. I was born and live in Toledo, Ohio. My favorite holiday is Halloween. I enjoy drawing and playing the flute and I want to go to college to get a degree in French)...(17yo: I am Michael. I live in Toledo, Ohio. My favorite show is How It’s Made on the Discovery Channel. I enjoy drawing portraits, painting, playing the piano, and I want to travel the world for a living)...(18yo: I am Michael Welter. I am from Toledo, Ohio. I prefer wearing dress clothes and I hate talking on the phone. I enjoy theatre, sculpting, math, korean food and I want to go to college to be a physics teacher)...(19yo: I am Michael Welter. I lived in Toledo, Ohio. I love physics and I go to High Point University in North Carolina. I spend most of my time studying, tutoring and listening to Coldplay).

In a matter of a few years my entire career path took a 180! I don’t think I ever really believed I’d be 21 years old---it’s always seemed like a distant future. But here we are, and here I am:

21yo: I’m Michael Welter. I am the president of High Point University’s extremely active SPS chapter and the president of a campus organization I’ve named HPUminds which consists of 20 physics and computer science majors working under the advisement of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to build and program a self-driving golf cart. I’ve been a physics tutor for five semesters, and am on track to earn a bachelor’s degree in physics with a minor in math and graphic design. I am an experienced graphic designer, and by the conclusion of my internship at the American Institute of Physics in Washington, D.C, I will have assisted in the editing, composition and publishing of two science magazines and a scientific journal. I plan to pursue a career in science communication, using my physics background and my visual production experience to help expand and educate the minds of millions of people.

I never plan to have all of the answers, but that won’t keep me from asking questions.

The Years Start Comin’

“If you think of anything ever, do it. Then show me.” -Brad Conrad, encouraging me to be creative with new SPS promotional material.

I had the priveledge of meeting with the Deputy Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) on Wednesday. This opportunity came about after winning a t-shirt design contest that the organization had promoted on Twitter. When I recieved an email from the Programs Assistant, I noticed that her office was based only a few blocks away from the GW campus (where we’re living for the ten weeks) so I requested to meet with someone to get advice on growing a math department and to network for future employment. It was very cool to compare and contrast SPS and MAA: many of the same values and goals (i.e. promotion of STEM, specifically math for MAA and physics for SPS), similar roots (founded to unite formal and informal educators), however MAA’s audience tends to be high school teachers and professors while SPS is focused on undergraduate students. Dr. Ensley was kind enough to grab coffee and chat with me for over an hour!

As for the tasks I completed this week:

• I reached out to the Madame Curie Museum in France asking permission to use one of their archived photos in a poster that will be sent out to all of the SPS chapters in the US, however I have not heard back from them. So, I spent most of Monday drafting a new poster. The new design features an image from the NASA Image and Video Library of a successful space shuttle launch accompanied by a quote from Maria Mitchell (1818 - 1889), the first female professional astronomer. The quote reads, “We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.” which, in my opinion, directly reflects the attitude held by most scientists I know---knowledge is truly addicting; for every answer found, five new questions appear. I think the juxtaposition of this quote from the mid-1800s to an accomplishment of NASA in 2000 will be an inspiring addition to the walls of physics rooms across the country.

• July 5th will mark the first annual international celebration of LGBT STEM Day, a day to increase the visibility of LGBT+ scientists through public, academic and industry engagement and to celebrate LGBT+ individuals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The American Institute of Physics (AIP) of which SPS is a member society holds inclusivity and diversity as priorities therefore they’ve encouraged all of their members to participate in promoting this celebration on social media. I was in charge of putting together a post for SPS (below). In tandom, I also helped populate a list of resources for people looking to learn more about LGBTQ+ scientists and ways to make your work/social spaces more inclusive (check it out: https://www.aip.org/diversity-initiatives/pride-month ).

• I spent most of Tuesday creating a new version of Physics Jeopardy that can be accessed from the SPS National website which is a fun way to engage your chapter and test your general physics knowledge (“general” as in various fields, not as in “physics 101").
• Our new Spherical Space Cow stickers and Approximations Make the World Go Round t-shirts arrived this week so now all the SPS interns and staff can be matchy. Also, I designed and printed business cards for all of the interns to take with them during networking events in the upcoming weeks.

Ongoing projects:

• We’re working on creating a new Alumni Engagement program on the national website that will allow post-grads to stay in touch with undergrad communities via a “communication request” portal. Students will be able to search through pages of speakers from varying fileds, industries, and locations and request to interact with them either in-person or electronically. I see the “mentorship” functionality of the program being really popular with undergrad researchers looking for external resources/references.
• The American Physical Society (APS, more abbreviations) hosts Future of Physics Days which are meetings exclusively for college undergraduates where they can participate in undergraduate research sessions, career and professional workshops, graduate school fairs and networking opportunities. Every year they design a t-shirt to give out at the meetings, and this year I’m in charge of coming up with some potential options. I’m trying to formulate a design that emulates or explains a physics concept in a fun and visually appealing way. We’ll see what my brain cooks up in the next few weeks.
• By August 1st we’ll be sending our Fall Mailer and Journal of Undergraduate Reports in Physics (JURP) to print. Soon after, the next edition of the SPS Observer magazine will be in its final stages of editting. I’ve been helping gather and organize content for all of those publications and am even co-authoring one of the articles in the Observer!
• One of the projects I’m looking forward to starting is writing a “Best Practices” article for new and reinvigorated SPS chapters. This article will be a collection of tips and ideas that I’ve gathered from personal experience being an SPS member, SPS president and SPS intern for students looking to lay groundwork for a successful SPS community. I’m excited to reflect on the past few years at HPU and summarize my most and least favorite experiences as a physics major.

I’ve started to decorate my cubicle with the miscellaneous projects I’ve designed for SPS so far. Week five, here we come!

Celebrating With Uncle Sam and Uncle Jesse

I met the creators of a puzzle game called Zendo on Monday, and actually got the chance to play the game with them for an hour. The rules are simple: players compete to figure out a secret rule set by a moderator by taking turns building new structures of game pieces--each new structure gives insight about the unknown attributes of the secret rule. Not only was the game genuinely entertaining, it was also a decent model of the scientific method: the more structures built, even if they did not follow the rule, the more information we had to form a hypothesis. I think that is a perfect analogy for the this past week.

I’ve mentioned before that life in Washington, DC is peculiar--particularly the passion of the people here makes life peculiar--and I chose the word ‘peculiar’ purposefully. Although peculiar can mean odd or unusual, it can also mean that a characteristic belongs exclusively to a particular person or place. People come here to influence the world, and that influence comes in many forms: signing legislation, starting a business, holding a filibuster, marching in the streets, researching STEM, tagging a street sign, hiring lobbyists, promoting a program, committing violence; players attempting to discover the ‘secret rule’ of progress. It’s particularly in DC where you find this constant battle for influence.

Myself and three other interns attended the Families Belong Together march on Saturday, which began as a rally near the White House. We heard testimony after testimony of people pleading for the abolishment of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), including testimonies from Lin Manuel Miranda, Alicia Keys and America Ferrera. The words were somber, but the message was powerful. Despite the exhausting heat, we marched from the White House to the Department of Justice. I chose to wear my new MAA shirt (as a way of representing that STEM was marching with us too) and a man came up to me and thanked me for representing his organization (coincidentally he was a retired MAA executive!).

As if the weekend hadn’t been heartwrenching enough, a handful of us visited the African American History Museum on Sunday. The layout of the musuem is different from the other Smithosonians we’ve visited in that there is a set path of exhibits that align chronologically. The path begins on the bottom-most level, in a very quiet, dimly lit corridor with images depicting the evolution of slavery and the horrors associated with slave life. As we moved through the timeline it was enlightening to see what historical figures and events influenced African American history (Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, MLK) and to see the dynamic shift approaching the sixties. Soon you’re immersed in music and color (“R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me”), walls lined with civil rights movement posters, flags, album covers and TVs showcasing black activist news coverage, hip hop music videos, and aerial footage of the 2008 inauguration. The museum emphasized the sacrifices made to arrive at the multi-cultural environment we live in today, but also stressed that racial/cultural equality remains an ongoing battle.

To finish out the week, we made our way onto the steps of the Capitol building to watch the Capitol 4th concert and the annual Fourth of July Fireworks on the Mall. It was nearly intolerably hot and humid, but there’s no feeling like being in the hub of America as the nation celebrates what makes it proud to be American.

Now we’ve reached the thought-prodding portion of our program: What makes you proud to be American? What would you like to be different? Challenge: Leave Donald Trump out of the conversation ;)

Thumbs Up for Science

“All physicists are awkward. There are like four different categories of awkward, but we all fit into one of them.” -Brad Conrad explaining the story behind yelling “Thumbs up for Science!” before every physicist photoshoot (example below).

I had a pretty mind-blowing experience this week during a résumé building workshop with Danielle! The workshop’s purpose was to demonstrate strategies for effective résumé writing and emphasize that a résumé should always be catered to the position for which you are applying. After seeing a few well-composed examples, Danielle passed out some job applications that she believed would be suitable positions based on each specific interns’ career interests. We were tasked with editing our own résumés in a way that succesfully catered to the applications she supplied to us. The (summarized) description of my assigned application was:

After the workshop, Brigette gave us a tour of her intern site The Optical Society , where we met a few of the employees and got the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the CEO. After the tour, I had an engaging conversation with the OSA Chief Scientist Gregory Quarles about the difficulties of communicating between scientists and non-scientists. One of the unique qualities of a High Point University education is that there is a huge emphasis on learning communication/interpersonal skills; the ever-growing group of STEM majors graduating from HPU is conveniently equipped to not only perform research, but also broadcast that research to diverse audiences.

On Thursday we were lucky enough to get a tour of the US Capital from Sam and Sarah , where we got to visit Senator Tammy Duckworth’s office and the Minority Office for The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology , attend a Committee hearing on Big Data and AI (where I snuck a “thumbs up for science” on the official CSPAN recording), meet Dr. Bill Foster (the only current PhD physicist in Congress), and sit in on a testimony from an Ohio senator from the view of the official Senate Gallery! We also took a pit stop in Senator Bernie Sanders office where I left the message “You have the support of the physics community!” in his contact notebook.

We were out of the office a lot this week but we’re still working hard to prepare for publishing JURP and the Observer, distributing the SPS Fall Mailer and SOCK, and coordinating events at the upcoming APPT Summer Meeting here in DC. Unfortunately, it’s time to start thinking about final, end-of-internship presentations, but there’s still plenty to do! Here’s a logo I designed this week:

Brushes and Beakers

One of my closest friends Erin Brady and I have been on a constantly twisting and turning journey throughout our freshman, sophomore and junior years at HPU . Erin and I met our freshman year in Physics for Video Games---an elective taught by our department chair Dr. Aaron Titus.

Although I had come to High Point as a physics major and was attending the class as a TA, Erin was enrolled as a graphic design major and was taking the class simply because it had sounded interesting to her when she was making her class schedule. Physics for Video Games was a course designed to teach introductory-level physics through engaging, old school, arcade-style programming activities. (All of the lessons can be accessed online here . I highly encourage you to check it out!) Lessons included remaking games like Space Invaders and Lunar Lander in GlowScript , analyzing the correct and (more often) incorrect physics at play, and eventually using that knowledge to code our own video game (here’s the one I made called Bubble Bonanza , it’s pretty addicting). It was strikingly obvious that Erin had the passion and analytical skills necessary to become a physicist, so Dr. Titus and I took it upon ourselves to convince her to switch to a physics major. After much nudging and persuading, Erin dove in head-first, adopting physics as a second major!

Since then she’s participated in a summer undergraduate physics research program, switched her graphic design/physics major to a studio art/physics double major, become the president of an on-campus organization, served as our SPS secretary, has been elected as our SPS Vice President, and is currently working at a museum in New York---all while maintaining one of the highest GPAs at HPU.

One of the reasons we’ve become such good friends is our shared interest in both the arts and the sciences---two worlds that are often considered extremely separate. The most influential thing I’ve learned while participating in this internship is how essential the relationship between art and science is; how easily we find beauty in nature, and how often art is used as a tool for learning. It was discussing this topic with Erin (for the n-teenth time) this week that inspired me to draft the pictured Brush and Beaker Logo.

One of the unexpected compliments of pairing physics with design is that for both solving a complex thermodynamics problem and for designing an engaging infographic you need a heightened level of creativity. A quintessential example of this can be found in the age of the Renaissance, where the convention-breaking, revolutionary artists, and the visionary, scientific leaders went by the same name: Da Vinci, Michelangelo and so on. Though they may not be quick to admit it, most of the scientists I know are extremely creative people, inventing and innovating by means of out-of-the-box thinking. It’s that out-of-the-box thinking that produces theories of relativity, increases the number of micro-chips on a circuit board, and detects gravitational waves.

Now-a-days however, it’s rare that evolutions in STEM (such a relativity theories and gravitational wave detection) emerge out of one person’s creative process. Despite the presence of a few “science celebrities” (Bill Nye, Elon Musk, Neil DeGrasse Tyson), the present world of STEM is mainly dominated by groups of creative people---just another reason why I’m happy to be here as a Communications intern!

(If you’ve been keeping up with my blogs, you may have noticed that this relationship between science and communication is not just a subtle theme but a significant portion of my narrative. I think all of the interns are noticing the importance of communication, especially as scientists in a political climate.)

Speaking of themes, Nathan and I got the amazing opportunity to attend a live town hall at the Congressional Visitor Center hosted by Senator Bernie Sanders titled “CEOs vs. WORKERS.” Another topic I’ve written about before is passion, and, boy, Bernie Sanders is a passionate individual. Politics aside, seeing someone using their credibility and authority (even derived from an unsuccessful presidential campaign) to bring attention to public issues is incredibly inspiring. I look forward to attending more events like this one in the coming weeks.

We’re in the final stages of organizing this year’s edition of JURP for publication and I feel obligated to take this opportunity to mention how incredibly hard-working and driven the SPS National staff are. During an excersion to Chipotle the other day, I made a joke about how the first time I visited the American Center for Physics (ACP) building, I went through three stages of surprise: first, I was in awe that the Society of Physics Students had their own building! Only to learn that SPS is just one of many organizations that occupy office space in the building. Then, when we reached the second floor of the ACP building, I was astounded that SPS occupied an entire floor...only to find out that SPS occupies just a handful of offices and cubicles on that floor. A handful. I think it’s the last realization that surprised me the most. All of SPS---outreach, budgeting, programming, marketing, communication, writing, editing, design, finances, intern coordination---is maintained by just a handful of extraordinary people.
I’m very lucky to be here working for these cool cats, and I’m also excited to get back to my cool cats in NC (shout-out to Erin!). Signing off.

Phacing the Phuture as a Physicist

Only 15 days left until the end of the 2018 SPS Internship Program!

For some of us, the end of this internship marks the beginning of life in the real world. After representing SPS at the International Conference of Physics Students in Finland, Sam Borer will be diving head-first into the medical field. Phoebe Sharp and Nathan Foster will be attending job interviews, Amanda Williams will be catching a flight to fiery California to work as a counselor at AstroCamp , and Sarah Monk will be using her newly gained experience in the Minority Office for The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology to leverage herself into a career in science policy!

For the rest of us, the stakes aren’t nearly as high---being that we all have at least one more year left in college---but what that means is we have the opportunity to take the knowledge we’ve accumulated over the duration of the past few months and share it with our own physics departments. Mikayla Cleaver , Jesus Perez and I will all be the presidents of our local SPS chapters next year, and I know we are all eager to get back to introduce new practices/strategies to strengthen membership and improve involvement.

I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about chapters losing their energy and participation after losing their long-withstanding faculty advisor and unfortunately we lost our founding faculty advisor last year, so I’m a little concerned about the upcoming transitionary period. However, a theme of those horror stories is that the advisor who is chosen to take on the responsibility is someone who has no experience with SPS or lacks the desire/time to provide the necessary guidance and organization. Amazingly, our department chair Dr. Titus has volunteered to take on the role---and if you have the pleasure of knowing him, you know he’ll provide an abundace of energy and passion to keep our chapter alive and thriving.

Despite my confidence in the new leadership, I think our chapter would benefit from some more structure. Right now, we rely wholly on natural assimilation to our physics community to keep things running smoothly in our meetings and research spaces. But a lot of the time assimilation promotes exclusivity and lacks a mechanism for regulation. (Although we have a constitution as an organization that provides a set of expectations, it is rarely referenced and is a few years outdated.) So I’ve been working with our SPS officers to plan some sort of Community Guidelines that our members can vote on to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding chapter values and rules.

Speaking of regulations, we visited the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST---Jesus Perez’s host organization) and got a glimpse into his research environment. Although I’m fairly certain that I don’t want a career in a lab environment, as we were touring the clean room and the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (NanoFab and NanoLab ), I couldn’t help but feel an air of nostalgia reaching back to my summer research experience at HPU last year. It was really cool to see the techniques/instruments that I used for my own experiments (photolithography, electron dispersive spectroscopy, atomic force microscopes) being used for applications in international industry, FDA standardization, and upcoming technology.

After a short night of rest, we hopped on the Metro to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for a behind-the-scenes tour of the research facilities where Daniel Morales and Collin Flynn have been building flying cars and visiting Mars. Conveniently NASA was hosting a Science Jamboree , in which one of the buildings was filled with tables covered in displays and demonstrations of astrophysics, Earth science, heliophysics and planetary science. I watched an intriguing presentation on our sun’s corona where I learned that the tail of a comet isn’t pointing opposite the direction of motion (which I had originally assumed) but is actually pointing opposite the direction of the sun! (The strength of the solar wind is stronger than the momentum of the comet debri!) The speaker also brought up the peculiarity that the sun and the moon happen to look nearly the same size from the view of Earth despite their extreme distance differences---which, if you think about it, is pretty spectacular!

As for projects I worked on this week, Stephanie Williams recruited me to design a card backing for the Center for History of Physics Games downloadable card games (pictured below). I tried to pack it full of historical physics references. Some are pretty obvious (the falling apple references Newton discovering gravity, telescope and planets represent macroscopic discoveries, Carbon atom represents microscopic discoveries (and a not-so-accurate portrayal of atom composition), and a light bulb to represent the discovery of electricity), but some are more subtle (the dot-and-dash border is a repeated morse code pattern for the names of the four moons of Jupiter Galileo discovered (can you name them?); the telescope is pointing towards the ring of Saturn, which he also discovered); the rays connecting the triangles to the circular illustrations represent light refracting in a prism; the four circular illustrations are connected by an elliptical orbit (to signify Kepler’s law of planetary motion) and orbit a star-like shape, representing the Copernican model of the solar system).

James gave me some great insight into what a non-traditional post-graduation for me might look like (“traditional” referring to the typical physics major post-grad path: graduate school -> PhD -> academia/industry). I’m almost entirely convinced that pursuing graphic design is the right move for me, so I was happy to get some advice. I’ll need to do some more investigation, but it looks like developing a strong portfolio and organizing my brand so that I’m ready to move into industry immediately following graduation is the next step. After getting some industry experience, I may consider going to grad school for GD (hopefully I’ll be able to get a company to pay my way through!). Now that I’ve got a logo, I’m able to start building a brand around it, which includes defining a color palette (I’ve chosen an analogous color theme: blue, blue/green, green), a style (still figuring that out..but I’m a big fan of the flat, geometric style, which I think will lend well to scientific illustrations), and a message (I plan to advertise myself as a scientific illustrator and graphic designer, using purposeful, colorful images to communicate various physics/science-related material).

Two weeks left with lots to do... including buying a train ticket home! Thanks for tuning in.

Choose To Be Extraordinary

“Some people are walking around with a tub of doubts. And you’d be surprised how little it takes for someone to come along and punch a hole in that tub.” -Shirley Malcolm, Director of the Education and Human Resources Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), on the topic of imposter syndrome during a plenary at the AAPT Summer Meeting.

Last week’s subject was projections, next week will be reflections, so this week I’ve done a bit of dissection.

I was asked by one of my professor’s to write a blurb for the yearly newsletter our department publishes on the topic of The Woz Project, and as I was writing, I found my thoughts drifting further and further away from the intended topic into something I’ve been contemplating recently:

High Point University’s motto “Choose to be Extraordinary” is ambiguously inspirational enough to recruit students from across the globe who dream of being the next big-name CEO, business owner, journalist, software engineer, designer or scientist. Unfortunately, despite being immersed in an environment expertly curated to cultivate creativity and innovative ideas, currently enrolled students often regard this phrase as simply an effective marketing strategy---rather than as an ingrained mindset. I believe a significant portion of this disconnect can be attributed to the ambiguity of the phrase---it could easily be (and often is) interpreted that choosing to be extraordinary is synonymous to enrolling at HPU; that, by association, an HPU student is effortlessly transformed into exemplary contributor to society. As convenient as that may be, it’s objectively untrue.

Although I’ve chosen to single-out HPU (a school for which I have an abundance of respect and appreciation)*, this concept of ‘The Key to Success’ is a theme that runs rampant through today’s media: all it takes is one viral video, one investment, one genius idea to achieve fame and fortune. But as Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple (a company whose net worth just broke 1 trillion US dollars) will tell you, “The first Apple was just a culmination of my whole life.” Many of us expect success to fall in our laps, but true success comes by taking advantage of the resources you have, pursuing the broadest education you can, and enhancing the lives of others. These values are derived from HPU’s promise to provide ‘an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment, with caring people’ and stand as the very foundation of HPUminds.

HPUminds is the title of the group of approximately 20 students (composed mainly of computer science and physics majors) working with Steve Wozniak to build a self-driving golf cart that will eventually assist with campus tours and events. I’ve been with the group since my freshman year, watching it grow and evolve---exceeding all expectations for what it could accomplish---and it has been this experience with HPUminds and the HPU Physics Department that has helped me unpackage what it means to “choose to be extraordinary":

[Note: Instead of using the literal definition ‘more than ordinary’, I’ve chosen to define extraordinary as synonymous to successful. Both terms are wildly subjective, but I think “successful” suits the context of the phrase.]

The key to choosing to be extraordinary is understanding that there is a choice. A conscious, intentional decision to strive for greatness. As a freshman applying to be a part of the team, I had minimal relevant technical experience and even fewer personal connections to those vetting applications. My lone qualifications were that I was a physics major (for they were only accepting physics and computer science students at the time) and that I was extremely motivated to be involved and to learn. I made it clear in my application that I was determined to be involved in the project and that I was willing to put in any amount of work necessary to ensure I was pulling my weight. Doing nothing is easy; the real challenge is finding the courage to pursue opportunities.

It’s important to mention that not all opportunities are worth pursuing, however. Often in college (and in life) there is an illusory correlation between the number of a person’s engagements and a person’s success. In the current social and professional climate, success seems to mean more bullet points on a résumé, more minutes of the day filled with commitments, more followers on Instagram, more certificates, awards and degrees hanging on the wall. But upon further analysis, it’s clear that those qualities are products of the pursuit of success---not a definition for success. Focus attention on activities that are simultaneously challenging and inspiring.

Since my freshman year (a little over two and a half years ago), HPUminds has become a Student Government Association-recognized organization, using their support and the support of the C.S., Physics and Communications departments to progress on the self-driving aspects of our eventually autonomous golf cart. We strive to embrace the strengths of our department and encourage learning, all while serving the needs of the greater HPU student-body. HPUminds symbolizes not just the minds of High Point University, but also that HPU is mindful of its and the surrounding community. Without compassion, there is no community; and without community, there is no humanity.

I would like to see HPUminds become a concrete representation of the character cultivated by an HPU education and I also hope that HPUminds becomes the catalyst for a campus-wide mindset transformation---advertising the immense resources at students’ fingertips and inspiring them to engage and conquer challenges.

Choose to be diligent. Choose to be compassionate.
Choose to take calculated risks. Choose to over-prepare.
Choose to encourage others. Choose to ask for help.
Choose to pursue and persevere through challenges.
Choose to be active. Choose to self-reflect.

And, therefore, choose...to be...extraordinary!

*Here are a few of my favorite ambiguously inspirational school slogans:

University of Colorado: “Let Your Light Shine”

University of Memphis: “Driven by Doing”

Pennsylvania State University: “Making Life Better”

University of Rhode Island: “Think Big. We Do”

Texas Tech University: “From Here, It’s Possible”

Canisius College: “Where Leaders Are Made”

University of Alaska Fairbanks: “Naturally Inspiring”

University of Melbourne & University of Waterloo: “Find Your Edge”

What are your thoughts on “The Key to Success” culture? Feel free to comment on my LinkedIn post here .

At last, Week X.