Lucy Corthell, 2022 APS Education & Diversity Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Juniata College

Hello everyone, I am the Education and Diversity Statistics Intern this summer at APS and a rising junior at Juniata College studying Engineering Physics with a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. I am from Seattle, Washington and I have an ardent desire to help encourage other marginalized populations in physics and STEM to feel welcome and included.

To work towards a more equitable environment, I think we need to recognize and challenge the cultural and structural barriers and bring more marginalized voices to the table. However, this alone will not mend inequity issues. Marginalized groups must feel accepted and share an equal amount of power to begin to close the gaps in higher education. I hope the work I do this summer on updating graphs and making statistics more available will fuel conversation around how to better support a community where all voices are represented to drive change.

My passions are in the intersection between engineering physics, social justice, and sustainability! Last summer I did research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory where I was fortunate to work with Sika Gadzanku and Eric Lockhart. There, I was able to explore my passions in green energy and energy equity which is a big reason why I am so ecstatic to learn more about diversity and education through this internship. I hope to follow my passions in engineering physics and sustainability to help make our transition to clean energy by 2035 an equitable one.

At Juniata, I am very involved with our SPS Chapter and the physics community. The physics community is always there for each other and has helped me adjust to college and figure out what careers are available. I also appreciate SPS and ΣΠΣ’s commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, Ethics, and Responsibility . Besides SPS, I have held leadership positions in Women in Physics, Juniata Environmental Coalition, and Peace and Conflict Studies club among others.

I am very thankful to SPS, and I am looking forward to working with Christine O’Donnell at APS this summer.

Internship

Host: American Physical Society

Project

Abstract

Inequities in higher education are excluding individuals with marginalized identities from Physics and other STEM fields. To understand where these gaps are, I collected and analyzed data on physics and STEM graduation rates at US colleges and Universities from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). IPEDS is a system of interrelated surveys conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The data I collected showed that there continues to be disparities between demographic groups which are a result of the systemic barriers and challenges faced by marginalized individuals. To work towards a more equitable environment, we need to recognize and challenge the cultural and structural barriers and bring more marginalized voices to the table. However, this alone will not mend inequity issues. Marginalized groups must feel accepted and share an equal amount of power to begin to close the gaps in higher education spaces. I hope the statistics and graphs I have collected will drive conversation around how to better support a community where all voices are equitably represented in Physics and STEM.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: First week in DC!

This week I moved to a city I’ve never been to on the exact opposite side of the country from where I grew up (Seattle) with only one suitcase and a backpack to be the Education and Diversity Statistics Intern for the American Physical Society (APS).

From filling out paperwork, downloading programs, trying to remember new names, meeting great people, and getting everything needed for 10 weeks of dorm life in the gorgeous George Washington Amsterdam housing, it has been a hectic and exciting week. The apartments are very spacious, we get a kitchen, living room, and our own bathrooms; not to mention that we are less than a mile from the U.S. Capital, Lincoln Memorial, and White House! I feel so privileged to be living where I am. It is also great because I love exploring and there is plenty to see.

At work, it has mostly been setting things up so I will be successful in the coming weeks but there is definitely lots to be done project-wise as well. Four of my biggest goals this summer are to:

1. Network

2. Learn more about how to better encourage underrepresented populations to study physics and in general read and educate myself further on diversity, inclusion, and social justice issues (in and outside of a physics lens).

3. Improve my Python skills

4. Improve my public speaking skills

I am also really looking forward to working with my mentor, Christine O’Donnell over this summer! Thank you, Christine, for making an organized schedule of the projects I have this summer! I am excited for all the projects and to be working in a field that I am so passionate about.

Thank you to Mikayla, Kayla, Lori, and Brad for helping to make the transition for us interns as smooth as possible! It sounds like there were a lot of obstacles that needed to be worked out along the way and I am so grateful to you all for the work you have done to get us all here. I am really looking forward to working with everyone and getting to know everyone better this summer.

Here’s to a promising summer - until next week,

Lucy Corthell

Week 2: First full week

The first full week at work went by fast. It’s only the second week and I feel like I’m getting into the swing of things: I have a grip on my project at work and I have begun to explore activities, museums, concerts and such in DC.

One of the most exciting things this week at work was getting the chance to eat lunch with Nobel Laureate, Dr. John C. Mather. We were able to ask any questions over lunch and we asked so many that he wasn’t even able to finish his food until the last five minutes when we were cleaning up. Work days go by pretty quickly but that was one of the fastest 1.5 hours yet. I am so thankful Dr. Mather was able to spend his time visiting with us!

I also received a monitor for my desk at work, thank you Milton and Nathan! It’s really helpful for reading and spotting outdated information (which has been one of my tasks this week). Additionally, I have been learning a little about science communication with my mentor which I think is an important skill set to continuously improve.

Wednesday, my roommate and I tried to attend a Halsey concert but after it was postponed due to lightning and waiting two hours in a half covered shelter for the storm to blow over we received a tornado warning and quickly got a ride from two nice strangers (thanks Stacy and Amy!). Headlines read Halsey Concert Canceled After Flooring at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland the next morning. Although we never got to see Halsey, we did get reimbursed and had a great night by getting off the metro three stops early to walk along the lit up monuments. They are magestical at night. I would definitely recommend seeing the monuments at night to anyone visiting DC.

Policy, politics, and action are everywhere in DC. I have never lived somewhere where there are so many protests, people speaking out on injustices, and advocacy groups. I love it! People come from all over to share their thoughts and speak up for what they believe in. This week, besides the January 6th hearings, stronger gun control measures have covered the news and in DC, its not just in the news but outside your front steps too. On Sunday, 45,222 flowers were put up around the Washington Monument (by the gun control advocacy group Giffords) to symbolize each death due to gun violence in 2022.

Coming up soon: this weekend there will be plenty to do and our SPS cohort is kicking it off with a trip to see the Nats Baseball game. Thank you Mikayla, Kayla, and Brad for setting that all up for us! There will also be a pride parade, pride block party, and fireworks this Saturday. Us interns will definitely be exploring those events.

Below are pictures of fellow interns and I on some of our adventures (including a group selfie with Dr. John C. Mather)!

Week 3: A favorite thing about the internship so far

One of my favorite parts of being an intern is reading the Education Diversity and Inclusion articles that my mentor suggests to me. Some of them are more dense and all of them are very engaging. Work can sometimes feel like a good class.

After reading the articles I get to discuss them with my mentor which allows me to debrief, ask questions, and absorb the information better. This week I read “I Could Hear You If You Would Just Calm Down": Challenging Eurocentric Classroom Norms through Passionate Discussions of Racial Oppression by Eileen O’Brien, a paper on the idea that professors need to change the way they teach EDI topics in class instead of just their class curriculum. The paper said that rage is often thought of as uncivilized and yet in these spaces anger is a normal response. Rage is one way of expressing frustration at disparities and is not uncivilized. It said that teachers should teach students to acknowledge that emotions are expected and normal in these conversations. It has a lot more to say than just this but I can’t wait to read the next paper!

As for events outside of work I thought a series of pictures would sum it up pretty well! :)

One of my favorite excursions around the city! We walked about a mile with these lamps and brought them on two metros. Here’s us just hanging with our lamps.

Pride party! This was the first Pride parade DC has had in two years. There was so much positive enery; it was one of my favorite Pride parades I’ve been to yet!

I checked out the church Biden goes to (apparently virtually); it is so gorgeous! I can see this church from my apartment window so it was cool to look around in person.

A couple posters later... (thank you to the wonderful employees who left posters for us to decorate with!)

This is all of us at the baseball game! Thank you so much to SPS for taking us! And for the pretzels and food, Brad!! It was a blast!

I went to a Tranquil Spaces art exhibit at American University to look at some awesome Czech art and saw the Ambassador of Czechia!! (p.s. They needed to take multiple special military planes just to get the art to the exhibit in the US!)

Upcoming, there is so much on the agenda for the rest of the week and this weekend! There will be a Chinatown community festival, we are going to an orchestra concert, a drag show, I’m heading to the embassy of Italy for an event, and this Monday is Juneteenth!

I hope you all have a reflective Juneteenth. Until next week,

Week 4: A great week featuring an Orchestra Concert and Astronomy on the Mall!

This past Saturday we went to the most spectacular orchestra concert held by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F) at the University of Maryland. [NOI+F trains aspiring orchestral musicians, composers, conductors and arts administrators from across the country in a month of dynamic music-making and professional exploration]. Thank you, Jack Hehn, for inviting and organizing this amazing opportunity for us!

Like the orchestra with its various sections and instruments, work has also had a lot of moving parts that all need to be in harmony to get everything done. There are meetings to attend, papers to read, and related tangents to explore via google. This week I took Monday to read a couple articles on on the importance of Juneteenth. I hope everyone else had a reflective Juneteenth as well. During the rest of the week, I was mostly working on running the pipeline that the intern before me, Zeynep, helped make.

For my main project, I am looking at two main sets of data. First, is a list of the institutions that have Physics degrees and second, is a list of institutions with degrees that fall under “all STEM.” Last week, I noticed that there were a few majors in the “all STEM” category that seemed to be missing. So one of my jobs this week was to run the pipeline to see if or how much the results change when I incorporat those degrees (using the old data). We decided to incorporate more degrees to the “all STEM” category because we found a spreadsheet with the list of all STEM degrees decided by the the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Us interns also had the honor of being invited to a picnic at Mikayla’s house this week on Wednesday! The food was spectacular (and included multiple delicious vegan sandwiches with avocado and tempeh bacon) and the location was gorgeous. The roof at her apartment is breathtaking! It was cool to be able to see the roofs of other buildings as well; many had gardens, intricate patios, and pools! Thank you so much Mikayla, Kayla, and other staff it was a lively get together!

Astronomy on the mall! It was very busy and fun! My favorite part was seeing so many people interested in learning about physics and astronomy :) I had the chance to teach an electromagnetic and diffraction demo to the public. The 3.5 hours we were there went by in a flash! After astronomy on the Mall Matangi, Justin, Div, and I walked down the Mall to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art! We got lost multiple times but it didn’t matter too much because there was so much to learn at every turn!

Meeting Bill Nye! Thanks for spotting him, Justin (and thanks for taking over our diffraction table for a little, Taylor)!

Here are some things that I did outside of work this week and with other interns!

Chinatown community festival! This event was exciting to go to because it was hosted by the mayor and had a lot of community based tents and activities.

The Futures Exhibition! This is a paper thin solar panel that is hanging from the ceiling!! (the blue-looking paper)

Outside of my work this week, as a virtual Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange 2019 - 2020 Alumni, I was able to attend an in person US-German relations event. My mentor, Christine, was very nice in letting me move around my work hours so I could attend. I was able to meet multiple German Diplomats, the Secretary of State (Anthony Blinken), and have lunch in both the US State Department and German Embassy. Danke schöne to the US State Department for organizing all that and to my mentor!

The German Embassy.

Meeting the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken!

The week finished off great with a lunch this Sunday at my professor’s house. My professor, Dr. Amr Abdalla, was so kind to invite us to his house for lunch. it was wonderful to catch up with him and my other two friends from college. The food was also to die for - thank you, Dr. Amr Abdalla!

Until next week,

Week 5: Halfway

Happy July! This week seemed to go by very quickly and I am realizing how short summer and this internship really is.

At work, I am uploading the most recent data sheets from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Once I have the excel files downloaded correctly, I will be able to update the website. This means there will be new graphs on APS web pages and the ‘Compair you Institution ’ webpage will have the newest data. There have been a couple technical issues which have hindered progress but I am working through those with the help of my mentor, Christine and great tech team, Nathan and Milton.

I read a paper called A comparative examination of research on why women are more underrepresented in some STEMM disciplines compared to others, with a particular focus on computer science, engineering, physics, mathematics, medicine, chemistry, and biology by Michelle A. Rodrigues and Kathryn B. H. Clancy. I appreciated hearing more about statistics of disparities in higher education by field rather than having STEMM all clumped together. Overall it was depressing to hear how underrepresented women and especially women of color are in STEMM the higher up in education one goes. The paper emphasized that we need to change the culture in STEMM to make it more inclusive but it also noted why that is so hard to do. I am looking forward to reading the paper next week.

Here are some things from outside of work this week:

Earth, Exoplanets, and Everything in Between presentation at the National American Indian Museum, hosted by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. It was cool seeing just how many planets exist that could have life! The speaker, Dr. Knicole Colón, is also very inspiring!

Someone saw a cockroach and GW housing apparently has a zero cockroach tolerance. This was 7am on Monday.

I saw this friendly groundhog right outside of the American Center for Physics (ACP) on my way home from work Tuesday!

We had a great group potluck this week! So much good food :) And thanks Janessa and Emma for letting us use your room!

Upcoming, I am planning on going to the Embassy of Colombia today with a friend to watch a movie hosted by the Embassy of Chili called “Spider!” And Saturday I will be checking out a farmers market with a friend in Arlington called The Old Town Farmers’ Market which is the oldest farmers’ market in the country held continuously at the same site! It’s a little far away but it is in front of Alexandria’s historic City Hall which I am looking forward to seeing. This Sunday I will be going to the National Museum of African American History and Culture!!! I am really looking forward to this as I got tickets over a month ago Hence my suggestion to future interns or anyone traveling to DC - book your tickets for the National Museum of African American History and Culture very early, they sell out fast! (They are also free as is every Smithsonian museum).

Until next week,

Week 6: Pupusas and continued work

The end of this internship is looming too close for comfort. This week besides continuing what I have been working on, I have been working on the intro to my final project and planning out a schedule for how to get everything done.

I read an article this week, ‘Underrepresented Minority’ Considered Harmful, Racist Language by Tiffani L. Williams. Thank you to my mentor for sending it to me. I would recommend it as it is free online, a great read, and short!

Events outside of work:

EventBrite has plenty of ideas for things to do in the evenings. Most of these events begin at 6:30 which means going directly from work and not being able to eat dinner till 9:00 or 10:00 but sometimes they have food, there are often people to network with, and if there is no food or people to network with then there is at least something cool to see! (Such as art or a view of the city depending on the event). The best part is that all of these events are free! (the only one I’ve paid for so far is $5 for sunrise pilates on the roof of the Embassy of Sweden at 6:00am).

This Sunday (7/3) I went to the National Museum of African American History And Culture with both Taylors and a friend from school! It was one of my favorite museums I’ve ever been to. I booked the tickets a month in advance so it was nice to finally go! We were there for 2.5 hours but there is so much to see, I hope to go again soon.

Cotton, silk and velvet blanket of Harriet Tubman made by Bisa Butler.

Last Saturday (7/2), I went to the farmers market at Old Town Alexandria in Virginia with a friend. The Saturday farmers’ market has been operating for 260 years! I enjoyed seeing the cobblestone streets and 18th-century townhouses.

Tuesday, we attended an educational event about pupusas hosted by the Embassy of El Savador and met the Ambassador of El Salvador to the US, Milena Mayorga!

Wednesday, I adventured to the Meridian International Center to see A Collective Exhibition Showcasing Egyptian Art which was put up to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of relationship between Egypt and the US. It was the last night they had it up and by the time you read this, the art will likely be on its way to Cairo.

When I got home, Nicole, Matangi, Taylor, and I made pineapple and mango bread and pumpkin bread. Both were delicious!

Thursday, I went to “TEXTERE” Calligraphy & Textile Art by Marina Soria at the Embassy of Argentina. One of the artist’s goals is to mingle diverse disciplines to challenge the limits of conceptual art and technique. I enjoyed learning more about both calligraphy and weaving!

Upcoming, I am planning on working on my final presentation more, updating the information on the website, and scheduling some more informational interviews at work.

Tonight, I am headed to the National Portrait Gallery to explore a screening of a new documentary about the power of teaching social justice through art. I’m hoping to get a good night’s rest before heading to a Traditional Japanese tea ceremony this Saturday morning!

I hope you all have a good weekend. Until next week,

Week 7: Group lunch hosted by the AIP Foundation team!

This week my mentor and I got the code running which means I now have a large excel sheet of all the data I need! I manually checked 5 colleges/universities and it seems to have all the correct information. This means the next steps are to update census data used to make plots and create new plots for the Education and Diversity website.

This Thursday the AIP Foundation team hosted a catered lunch for all the interns! It was great to see everyone and to hear more about each other’s projects. Thank you SPS and AIP for hosting us and for the delicious food!

Thank you to Emma, Saksham, Janessa, both Taylors, and Ben for helping me turn the fire alarm off earlier this week!! It was quite the experience to have everyone waving towels and clothes around both smoke detectors. Luckily the smoke cleared quickly (and the food wasn’t too burnt).

Evening kayak on the Potomac river:

For anyone who is searching for a dairy alternative to whipped cream, I used this for a pie and brought it to one of our intern potlucks and no one could tell it was vegan. I would recommend.

Last Sunday I was able to go to a conference surrounding Social Movements and Cultural Preservation in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet! It was really interesting to learn more about Hong Kong, Xinjiang (East Turkestan), and Tibet! I hope to continue to learn more (and thank you, GW for hosting free educational events).

I am so thankful we were invited to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony at the Washington Times Building last Saturday! It was an excellent experience and I’m glad Nicole, Justin, and Taylor could come :)

Also, last Friday evening I went to an event with Taylor called Truth Tellers at the National Portrait Gallery for an exclusive screening of a new documentary about the power of teaching social justice through art!

Looking forward to next week: our abstract, title, and draft final presentations are due. We will also be touring NIST! Thank you to NIST interns for setting that up! I hope you all have a good weekend.

Until next week,

Week 8: Touring NIST!

This Thursday, most of the interns got to tour the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)!

Here’s a picture of the walls inside the Anechoic Chamber (which is a room that is designed to stop sound reflections so it feels like your wearing noise canceling headphones)! We could only have 5 or 6 people in the room at one time because the floor is mesh and can only support so much weight. Fun fact is that we could see everything that has dropped through the mesh over the last 50 years because it is so hard to clean (and the room is 50 years old). Thank you to Rich Allen for leading that tour!

Here’s a photo from inside the Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) at NIST!

Thank you, NIST interns, for setting up a tour; it was cool to see where you all work!

Last Monday I submitted my abstract for my project and title and this Monday I will submit my draft presentation! I am so sad to be nearing the end of this internship but I’m also too busy making graphs, excel sheets, and my final presentation to really think about it.

Great news is that I have some of the graphs with the latest data (2020) for the American Physical Society Education and Diversity website !

Here is a sneak peek into what you will soon find on the website:

Outside of touring NIST and my project this week I was able to volunteer at the National Asian Heritage Festival on the mall last Saturday. I helped take shots for social media to promote the event, redirect lines, and give general information and directions at the information tent. A fun fact is that it is the 17th year they’ve held the Fiesta Asia Street Fair! This picture is from the peace march/parade that was held.

Sunday, I went on a Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land tour. There were beautiful gardens filled with adorable bees.

Monday we had a potluck style burrito night! Each of us brought an ingredient for burrito/bowl/taco night. Thank you, Emma and Janessa, for hosting us once again!

Wednesday night Emma, Ben, and I explored the French Embassy! They held a French play called Bad Mama which was a comedy with some deeper lessons in it. This was especially interesting because the French embassy never holds any free events (but this one was :)! I am glad that I was able to practice my French a little as well.

Upcoming: tonight, Brad is going to give a talk this afternoon and tomorrow we are taking a break from the city to go on a beach adventure!

Until next week,

Week 9: Lunch and Learns!

This week we had two Lunch and Learns! The first was with Dr. Renee Horton from NASA. Dr. Renee is an inspiring scientist who has worked at NASA for 13 years, has a kids book series called Dr. H Explores the Universe, created a nonprofit calledUnapologetically Being Inc (UBI) which partners with communities around the world to support marginalized students in following passions in STEM careers through mentoring, and so much more. I am really inspired by her speech and I am so thankful she made time to talk with us. Thank you, Dr. Renee Horton!

Our second Lunch and Learn of the week was by Midhat Farooq from the American Physical Society (APS) on resume building. She gave us a lot of tools and resources to build a skills-based resume. It helped me see how companies view resumes and what I should be incorporating to get a better chance at receiving an interview. Thank you, Midhat, for taking time to talk with us; it was helpful!

This week has been a busy work week with our final presentations swiftly approaching. I like presenting and I think it will be great practice for future presentations and extra preparation for when we present at conferences/meetings this winter (because SPS will fund us in attending a conference/meeting this upcoming year). I will hopefully be going to the 2022 Physics Conference (PhysCon) this winter and I’m looking forward to it. I am so thankful to SPS for organizing talks (like with Dr. Renee Horton and Midhat) on professional development, teaching us about resources, and encouraging us to attend conferences and other SPS meetings.

At work I have been inputting all the data I collected this summer into tables which are then made into graphs. These graphs will be on APSs Education and Diversity website. The graphs show national averages and other statistics on degrees granted at Bachelors, Masters, and PhD levels across demographics (race and gender) in the US. The data is often used by schools to see how their school is doing, by staff in grant proposals, and by students and professors in papers to analyze where there are gaps in higher education in the US.

I also got some awesome space posters to upgrade my desk from Brad Conrad - thank you Brad!

After work this Thursday we went to the Wharf to see a scary movie. The scariest part was when a storm rolled in and had us all running for cover under the tents. Luckily storms only last about 20 minutes here and there was no lightning, so we waited it out and then continued watching! Thank you to ‘District Wharf’ for funding and organizing free public movies.

Upcoming is exploring Union Market tonight and checking out any last Smithsonians we haven’t gone to.

Upcoming for work next week is finalizing my project, making sure everything is set for next year’s intern, and our final presentations.

Until next week,

Week 10: It’s not the end, it’s see you later

The last week flew by. Between finishing up projects, spending time with friends, practicing final presentations, packing, and trying to sleep between all of the other things it has been hectic! I can’t believe we are in the last week but I know that I’ll see many of my friends made through the SPS program at PhysCon and hopefully after that too!

This week I finished making a ‘masterlink’ on google docs with all the links to the current graph on APS’s Education and Diversity website, a link to the new graph, and a link to the excel spreadsheet used to make the graph (and so others can make other graphs with the data too). I also wrote an internal memo which is a collection of things I think the website could improve upon such as changing language like ‘Non resident alien’ to ‘nonresident’ or ‘temporary resident,’ I finished up my final presentation, I sent out final emails and thank yous, and did other last items.

Thursday we had a run through of all the presentations where we ran through all our presentations and got feedback. This was a great space to get advice and make last minute changes for the final presentations on Friday. Friday’s presentations went great and there was even food, vegan Maja Blanca, a delicious Filipino dessert that is like pudding with coconut milk thanks to the Rheology intern, Justin! The presentations went smoothly and I never lost interest as everything was fast paced and I was curious to learn what my friends had been working on over the summer.

Group happy hour and networking!

My roommate and I outside of the Native American History museum! I would recommend going as there is so so much to see. Although it is one of the most sombering museums I have been to, I learned a lot. Thank you for going with me, Matangi! <3

Bye DC, now for a layover in Cincinnati and then a 4.5 hour flight to Seattle!

Home airport! If you are ever in SeaTac International Airport definitely check out the Seattle Chocolate store :D

There are also many people that I want to thank!

• Thank you, Christine O’Donnell for being such a supportive mentor! I am so grateful for your guidance and time.

• Thank you also to the Society of Physics Students for providing this experience and to Kayla Stephens, Mikayla Cleaver, Brad Conrad, and Andrew Zeidell for helping everything to run smoothly. I am so appreciative of all the time and organization that you all put into the educational, networking, bonding, and other events this summer - all of us interns had a great time at them and learned a lot.

• Thank you to the American Physical Society, Michael Wittmann, Kathryne Sparks Woodle, and everyone else for their knowledge and advice on my projects.

• Thank you to APS IT, Milton Villatoro and Nathan Walton for the monitor, set up help, and other IT!

• Of course, thank you to all the SPS interns! Thank you for being the best community and chosen family, it has been a pleasure to live on the 9th of Amsterdam Hall with you all! I hope to stay in touch and I will see most of you at PhysCon!

If you are next year’s Education and Diversity intern reading this I want to advise you to say hi to Misty and Luna (if you have Christine as your mentor) who are Christine’s cats, ask EVERY question even if you think it is a dumb question, go to the library and Panera GW building if you need a good place to work/study, check out EventBrite and go to some embassys/free cultural events or even volunteer - people are always looking for volunteers, and make a list of things you want to do and sign up for them/put them in a calendar so that you do them! The African American History and Culture museum books up super fast (a month in advance) so sign up ASAP! There are also other cool museums you can schedule in advance. It’s a lot of work but good luck and have fun! :)

All in all, I hope this is not goodbye, let’s keep in touch! I hope to have made life long friends and physics connections for networking later on down the road :)

Until next time,

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