Samantha Staskiewicz, 2019 AIP FYI Science Policy Communications Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: The College of New Jersey

I am a graduating senior from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) with a major in physics, specialization in geophysics, and minor in environmental studies. The past three years I have served as an officer in my SPS chapter including the roles of secretary, treasurer, and president. I learned early-on in my undergraduate career that studying physics is applicable to a wide-range of scientific interests when I got involved in atmospheric science research at TCNJ. During the summer of 2018, I participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) at Pennsylvania State University where my passion for atmospheric and climate science was solidified. I will be attending graduate school at Penn State in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science this upcoming fall.

With my passion for climate science comes the desire to educate and inform people on current environmental issues, and I have also been exploring the idea of pursuing a career in environmental policy one day. I am excited for the experience to work as this year’s AIP Science Policy News intern so I can get my feet wet in the world of public policy. I am also looking forward to meeting the other interns and exploring all that DC has to offer!

Internship

Host: American Institute of Physics

Project

Abstract

As the science policy communications intern for FYI, I completed a wide range of assignments such as writing sections of weekly newsletters, tracking amendments to legislation, and reporting back to the team on important science policy events. My favorite events to attend were House Science Committee hearings which taught me a lot about how science is prioritized and discussed by elected officials. I authored a full-length article on a hearing that surveyed threats posed by melting glaciers and ice sheets, such as sea-level rise and disruption of water supplies. My presentation will focus on the details of this hearing, specifically the witnesses’ recommendations to Congress on how to address the remaining knowledge gaps in the field.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week One: Summer in the City

This summer I am super excited to be the FYI Science Policy News and Communications Intern! FYI puts out weekly newsletters and bulletins related to science policy. My role as the FYI intern will be going to different events to take notes and report back to the team, writing blurbs for the weekly newsletter, and hopefully writing larger blurbs or even a bulletin as the summer progresses. Coming from a physics background, I still have a lot to learn about science policy and science writing, but I’ve already learned so much in week one!

This week, I learned how to record and transcribe different hearings and meetings using a variety of online programs. Mitch, my mentor, has given me different writing exercises related to these hearings ranging from simply taking notes to attempting to summarize these long hearings in a five-sentence paragraph. It’s surprisingly very challenging! I’ve been trying to focus on recognizing what information in these long hearings is more important and then conveying the information in a way that is stylistically appropriate for FYI. Next week, I will be going to a hearing at NIST and another hearing on Capitol Hill related to ocean exploration. I’m very excited!

Unrelated to work, living in Washington, DC is amazing. I’ve never lived in a city before or even been in a city for more than a few days, so I’m really looking forward to all that DC has to offer. Our apartments are in a very convenient spot where we can get to just about anywhere in the city. My roommate Cate and I are also very compatible, and it’s been great coming home at the end of the day and hearing about what she did. She’s working at the Neils Bohr library which makes her experience very different from mine. It’s fascinating to see all of us interns have such similar physics backgrounds but all doing very different jobs. On Monday we all went to the National Mall to check out the monuments, and yesterday we all went kayaking. I think we’re a really awesome group!

I have a few goals for this summer: 1) learn as much as I can about how the government works in terms of science policy, 2) become a better scientific writer, and 3) figure out if science policy and/or communications is something I would want to pursue as a career one day. Week one has exceeded my expectations, and I can’t wait to see all that lies ahead in the next nine weeks!

Week Two: NIST, Capitol Hill, AIP, and More!

This week has FLOWN by! I went to NIST, Capitol Hill, and spent a lot of time at AIP in meetings, doing some research, and writing on my own. Here was the outline of my week:

Monday (AIP): I helped the team prepare for releasing “This Week” at noon. I did not write anything for this newsletter, but I got to see the editing process!

Tuesday (NIST): I went to NIST for their Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) meeting. The meeting was from 8:30am-4:00pm with some small breaks here and there. I did a LOT of note taking and the meeting was very long, but somehow the time still seemed to fly by. It was a lot of information to take in, but I’m happy I went because now I know a lot more about NIST than I did prior to going. I also got to meet Vint Cerf, the father of the internet! He’s on the VCAT, and I got to talk to him for about 10 minutes along with Nicholas, the NIST policy intern. It was a really awesome experience.

Wednesday (Capitol Hill and AIP): I went to Capitol Hill for a House Science Subcommittee hearing on Ocean Exploration! I was particularly interested in this hearing because I really like environmental science. A lot of the topics covered in this hearing are topics I’ve learned about in my classes at TCNJ, so it was rewarding to see my college education overlap with this internship. After the hearing, I went back to AIP to meet with the team and tell them about my travels.

Thursday (AIP): I finally started writing- like really writing! Mitch tasked me with writing a full-length bulletin on the Ocean Exploration hearing which could end up just being an exercise or could be published; he’s not sure yet. However, I will be contributing two short blurbs for the weekly newsletter! I was also tasked with summarizing some new bills that were introduced in Congress.

Friday (AIP): It was finally time to wrap up for the week! I researched about SpaceX for one of my blurbs, finished my contributions to the weekly newsletter, and got a lot of edits on my practice bulletin.

This weekend I did a nice combination of relaxing and adventuring. After work on Friday, another intern, Terry, and I went to a restaurant for dinner and milkshakes. It’s dangerous how much good food there is in DC. The place we went to was called The Hamilton and it was right near the Metro Center station. On Saturday, most of the group went to a Pride celebration at The Optical Society where we were able to watch the parade from a pretty high-up balcony. It was a great view! On Sunday, Gia, Nolan, Terry, and I went for a run/walk near the Potomac, and then Terry and I went to some museums later in the day. The Air and Space Museum was really crowded, but the National Gallery of Art was incredible. We also explored a small garden near the Hirshhorn Museum. The rest of the weekend, I did a lot of reading and watched a little bit of the TV show Scandal on Netflix (which takes place in DC, so it’s cool to see all the spots in the show that are right down the street).

I’m very excited to see what week three has in store!

Week Three: Caffeinate Me

I have consumed an insane amount of coffee these past three weeks. It’s not because I’m overworked or tired at all; it’s just when you’re a 22-year-old in working in DC, something about a cup of coffee first thing in the morning makes you feel like a real adult, and then turns into another cup or two throughout the day. This is definitely a habit I’m going to have to break.

I will say though, the caffeine gave me lots of energy for another productive week. On Monday we put out the FYI weekly newsletter, Tuesday I did some prep work at AIP, Wednesday I went to Capitol Hill for a hearing again, Thursday I went to the National Institutes of Health, and Friday I worked on a bulletin with Adria and three blurbs for the upcoming newsletter. Everyone at AIP is so encouraging, helpful, and positive, and I’m really treasuring my time here. I can’t believe week three is already over! This summer is flying by.

This week was also very fun-filled! On Tuesday, I traveled to Alexandria, Virginia to meet my friend Maggie who works for the National Science Foundation. Maggie used to be my physics professor at TCNJ before getting the job at NSF. She is also married to the professor I’ve done cloud physics research with at TCNJ. I’ve gotten to know their family really well over the past four years, and both Maggie and her husband Nate are great mentors and friends. She and I walked around Old Town Alexandria, went to the waterfront, ate at a really tasty Italian restaurant, and got some Ben and Jerry’s to end the night. I’ll be seeing her again next week when I travel to NSF for a meeting!

Thursday was also an exciting evening! All the interns went on a dinner cruise on the Potomac with the SPS executives. Despite feeling somewhat sick all day, I managed to make the most of it, and the group danced a lot which was very fun! I was very tired the next morning, but hey, that’s what coffee is for, right?

Over the weekend, all the interns were invited by SPS to go to an orchestra concert at the University of Maryland. It was AMAZING! The musicians were very young, between the ages of 18 and 28, and it was the most talented group of musicians I’ve ever listened to. When we arrived at the venue, we all ate some pizza provided by SPS, took some lovely group photos outside, and then got to see the performance. The concert definitely got me thinking that I want to go to more musical performances this summer.

I ended the weekend by spending time with my friend Heather who is interning at a non-profit in Annapolis. She came to DC Sunday afternoon, and we went to a pop-up exhibit near Metro Center of Donald Trump’s most entertaining tweets. It was, well, interesting to say the least. And now here I am in our apartment, enjoying some Trader Joe’s BBQ chicken pizza, watching the Google Doc of this week’s newsletter unfold with lots of edits, and winding down for the night.

Mitch has challenged me to rename all my blog posts to something more creative rather than “Week One” and “Week Two”, so for those of you who have read my previous posts, you will see that my previous post titles have changed. As he puts it, titling if more of an “art” than anything else, and he is totally right. So please enjoy my *somewhat* more creative titles going forward. I’m really trying!

Week Four: When I grow up, I want to be...

I have become a master of the metro. After I leave DC, I’m definitely going to have nightmares of a robotic voice saying, “This is a 7000 series train”. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it’s going to be like when I leave DC. Come August, I will be starting graduate school for meteorology and atmospheric science at Penn State. Going from DC to State College is going to be a HUGE adjustment.

I spent 10 weeks at Penn State for an REU last summer, and although Penn State has an exciting, party-school reputation, State College is very boring in the summer. Penn State is essentially in the middle of nowhere; my travels from central NJ to State College entail a little over 200 miles on Route 80. State College itself is a cute, fun, little town, but there is literally nothing surrounding it. Once you get on Route 80, there often isn’t even a rest stop for over 30 miles. It’s going to be a big change to go from a busy, vibrant city where you can get anywhere in a matter of minutes on the metro to the center of PA.

I’ve been thinking a lot about last summer compared to this summer. Although I’m very grateful for my REU experience and I’m excited to do research in graduate school, I’m especially grateful for this internship because it’s making me realize that there are so many different careers I can pursue with a physics degree other than solely research. For a few years now, I’ve envisioned myself being a research scientist for a living one day, and it’s eye-opening to be exposed to a range of physicists every day that are doing so many different jobs. Adria has a PhD in atmospheric science and works for FYI, and I even had lunch with a TCNJ physics alum Andrew who works for Physics Today. I have a lot in common with Adria and Andrew based on the degree I have, the degree I hope to obtain one day, and my choices in schools, and neither of them are research scientists. But they both have awesome careers that I can potentially see myself pursuing in the future.

When people ask me what I want to be when I grow up, I still don’t know. But I’m truly thankful for all the physics exposure SPS is giving me to help figure that out.

Week Five: Chill Time

We’re halfway done!

This week has been the most uneventful week so far, probably because we’re all getting very comfortable here. Traveling to work doesn’t feel like a field trip anymore, and being in DC is starting to feel like home. I traveled for one event this week, but it was a 10 minute walk from our dorm, so I was actually home way earlier than usual. I went to a conference on space weather at the Department of the Interior which was interesting!

I’ll spare you the other details of my week given that it was mostly office work and writing as usual. The only new type of work that I did was writing some tweets for the FYI Twitter. Side note: it’s useful to remember that tweets have a max of 280 characters BEFORE fully drafting all of them. I ended up having to rewrite a lot of them becuase my character count was way over.

Earlier in the week, I also co-authored a bulletin with Adria on sexual harassment in science. Here’s the link to check it out! :

https://www.aip.org/fyi/2019/science-committee-approves-bill-combat-sexual-harassment

On Friday, my sister came to visit, and a group of us checked out some food in Georgetown. We went to a delicious pizza place called Pizzeria Paradiso, and we got some cupcakes at Baked and Wired for dessert. The cupcakes were AMAZING.

On Saturday, I went to a baseball game with Terry, our two professors that I’ve previously mentioned, and their children. Terry already cleared this up in his last blog post, but I’m now going to officially say on my end that Terry and I have been dating for the past two years. I’m very grateful to be spending the summer with him, especially given that I’m not going to see him as frequently when I move to Pennsylvania. Terry and our professor Nate have the same favorite baseball game, the Cleveland Indians, so we were able to get tickets to see them play in Baltimore! It was a great time.

Well, the game itself was a great time. Towards the end of the night, my throat started to feel scratchy, and my head started to hurt. I ended up spending all day Sunday with cold symptoms and a fever, and I didn’t go to work the next day (which is why I am writing this blog post late). I went to a nearby urgent care on Monday, and it turns out I have an ear infection too. Reminder: when you’re in a city, wash your hands frequently and take extra precautions to keep germs away! I haven’t felt this sick in a long time, and it’s probably because I haven’t been in such a crowded area in a while. I should be back to work tomorrow for a short two days before the Fourth of July long weekend :)

Week Six: Bucket Hats and Buckets of Rain

I’m having weird childhood flashbacks.

I can hear the music now. It’s 8pm, I’m 4 years old, grabbing my favorite stuffed animal, pulling the top of his hat and the music starts playing.

You’re probably thinking, what is this girl referring to? Is she crazy?

Everyone around me looks like Paddington Bear.

Thanks alot, Brad Conrad. For those of you who don’t know, Brad (SPS Director) LOVES bucket hats, and he is in the process of purchasing one for everyone in their favorite color. However, from the moment I first saw Brad in his bucket hat, I had this weird childhood feeling, and I’ve finally traced it back to the fact that everyone around me in their bucket hats looks like Paddington Bear. I LOVED Paddington Bear when I was a kid, but it’s quite odd to be reminded of him when you’re surrounded by a group of 16 physicists. I’ll admit, I’ve been wearing my bucket hat all weekend as well. I mean come on, it’s comfy, keeps my ears from getting sunburned, and I can’t help but feel adorable in it. I’m debating wearing it to work tomorrow... do bucket hats count as “business casual”?

However, just when I needed my bucket hat the most, I forgot to bring it with me. On Saturday, a group of us went back to Baked and Wired for some evening sweets, and on the way back we got caught in the HEAVIEST rain I’ve ever been in. It was the kind of rain accompanied by wind that blows you right over, rain that’s coming down on a diagonal feeling like pellets hitting your back, the kind of storm that leaves you so soaked it feels like you just took a two-hour shower. It was definitely an adventure to say the least, but I regret not bringing my bucket hat for even the slightest bit of protection. I learned my lesson I guess.

Anyway, the Fourth of July weekend was filled with lots of good food, walking around the city, and most importantly a Stranger Things Season 3 marathon. While the four-day weekend was fun, I’m definitely ready to get back into the swing of things at FYI.

Week Seven: Politics, Space, and Home

This blog post will now come to order.

This week was a rather exciting week here in DC, as we interns got tours of both Capitol Hill and NASA Goddard! I’ve been to Capitol Hill before for two different House Science hearings, but the tour we got was a whole new experience. For starters, we got a detailed tour of the Capitol Building by Mather intern Gia who showed us old Senate and Supreme Court rooms, the current House gallery, and lots of beautiful artwork and sculptures. We also made our way to the Library of Congress, and we ended the day by sitting down with Bill Foster, the only PhD physicist in Congress! He gave us a unique perspective on the intersection between science and politics, and emphasized the need for well-informed scientists. He was a relatable and down-to-Earth person, but also so intelligent, informative, and insightful. I’m grateful for the experience to be able to meet and talk to him. Following our meeting with Dr. Foster, a small group of us went to check out the office of Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, each leaving a post-it note on her wall of letters.

The NASA tour was on Thursday which included tours of several labs. We got to see where both Terry and Nolan work, and we got to meet their mentors and lab mates. My favorite part of the day was an event called the “Science Jamboree” in which dozens of NASA groups lined the hallways of a building with tables and talked about their research and gave demos. I was really interested in the different climate initiatives going on at NASA, and I got to hear a lot about their current climate modeling efforts. I feel like when people think about NASA they just think about rocket science, but it was eye-opening to see the variety of types of research being done at Goddard.

On Friday I went to a Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee Meeting for the beginning of the day, and watched and took notes on a House Science hearing on glaciers later in the day. I’m hopefully going to be writing a bulletin on the hearing and current efforts and policy related to threats posed by melting sea ice. I’m really excited! The research I will be doing in graduate school is related to sea ice, so this bulletin is very much up my alley.

I’ve been feeling a bit homesick, so I booked an Amtrak ticket for Friday night and spent the weekend home. I’m actually on the train coming back to DC right now. It was a great weekend catching up with friends, my parents, siblings, and grandparents. My best friend Elizabeth’s birthday was this past Wednesday, so the highlight of my weekend was being able to take her out to dinner and catch up with her. I missed her a lot! I also got to enjoy a New Jersey bagel which was well-overdue. Boy have I missed the good ol’ pork roll, egg, and cheese on an everything bagel. Hopefully this weekend will hold over my bagel habits for another three weeks!

PS- If you haven’t noticed, the majority of the photos attached to my blog posts are not oriented correctly. Despite being a physicist, this seems to be a problem I haven’t been able to solve...yet.

Week Eight: Melting

I’m not ready to leave DC.

I have become so attached to the city, the people, and my job. It’s crazy to think we only have two weeks left! Especially given that part of the last week entails our final presentations and rehearsals, so we only have 8 real work days left. However, these next 8 days are going to be quite exciting!

I don’t know if I’ll be traveling to any events yet, but I do know that we will be publishing my bulletin! I finished my article on a House Science Committee hearing on melting glaciers the other day, and it is currently in the editing processes. I’m really proud of the work and effort I’ve put into it! It’s making me very excited for the research I’ll be doing in graduate school.

Earlier this week, Joseph and Nicholas also gave us a tour of NIST! We got to see several labs and learn more about the research NIST is doing. It was fun!

This weekend, Terry and I had our friend Jeff come visit! He recently got a software engineering job in Maryland, so he drove to come see us and spent the night at GW. We got dinner at Burgers Tap and Shake on Friday and then just hung out and relaxed, and on Saturday we explored the Hirshhorn Museum! The art was AMAZING. It was definitely my favorite museum I’ve been to this summer. 2020 interns-- you should check it out!

However, this weekend has been quite toasty to say the least. The current heat wave is making it feel like 110 degrees. No wonder glaciers are melting!

Week Nine: Published!

My glacier bulletin is published! I am really proud of the work I’ve done this summer, and this article brings together everything I’ve learned. It was HEAVILY edited by the FYI team and my writing still has a long way to go, but it feels good to have worked on a writing piece myself from start to finish. If you’re interested in giving it a read, here it is:

https://www.aip.org/fyi/2019/geoscientists-call-reinforcing-glacier-and-ice-sheet-research

With only three real workdays left before our final presentations, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the summer. I have learned so much about science policy and science writing, but also about myself.

1) Science policy is complex and interesting- I came into this internship knowing nothing about science policy and I’m leaving with way more knowledge than I started with, but I still have so much to learn. On the surface, I have a much better understanding of how bills are passed, how science gets funded, who makes decisions, etc., but every topic and situation has so many layers that it’s challenging to get all the pieces at once. It’s amazing to hear the way the FYI team talks to each other about different happenings, and how well-versed they are on everything going on.

2) The editing processes is never truly done- The amount of revisions that my writing went through this summer is crazy, and I still feel like there are always ways of making it better. When something is finalized, it more or less means that the writer drew the line on the editing process and had to stop somewhere. If not, it would keep going forever. However, every individual on the FYI team has their own unique contributions, and I’m grateful to have recieved so many perspectives and opinions on my writing.

3) Desk work/travelling is a nice combination- Travelling to events is fun, but it can also get exhausting. Working in a cubicle is relaxing, but it can also get boring. The type of work I did this summer was the perfect mix, it kept me on my toes, and it made me excited to go to work every day.

4) Time flies- How did 9 weeks go by already? I just can’t believe it. 2020 interns, make the most out of your summer in DC. Don’t take a single weekend or adventure for granted. Do as much as you can!

5) Physicists are a really unique group of people-I never thought that I would get this close to all the people I met this summer. Terry has always told me that he thinks all physics majors have a special bond, and I now believe him. My REU last summer had a mix of majors, and everyone was super nice. But all of Terry’s REU cohort were physics majors, and he said he felt a connection with them that was rare. I now understand what he means, because I have made friendships and connections with the interns here in DC that are incredibly special and different than any other group of people I’ve known.

Week Ten: The Finale

I’ve been home in New Jersey for a little over a week, and it feels really weird. It’s a bittersweet feeling too be back. This summer was truly unforgettable, and I’m so grateful for all the opportunities SPS has given me.

In our final week, I focused a lot on preparing my presentation and then giving my presentation. I’m really happy with how it went! Despite being very chatty and social, I tend to freeze when I’m in front of a crowd. My presentation wasn’t perfect, but a lot of the things I was nervous about I quickly forgot about as soon as I was up there. I was confident and excited, and I think everyone did a really awesome job.

I can’t stress enough how special this internship program was, and I truly think that any physics major interested in a internship or summer physics experience should apply. I wish I had known about this program earlier on in my college career. Although my REU experience was eye-opening, it was really rewarding to gain physics experience that wasn’t research-based. Throughout my undergraduate experience, I would always have people ask me if I was going to be a teacher or if I wanted to go to graduate school; I don’t think people stress other career options enough. I really valued being able to see everything that all the other interns accomplished this summer, and how much you can truly do with physics.

Thank you SPS for everything. I’m definitely going to go tell all my TCNJ physics friends to apply for this program next year, so be on the look out! :)

PS- Finally, at week ten, I have figured out how to get the attached pictures straight!