Amanda Maeglin, 2024 APS Public Engagement STEP UP intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Vanderbilt University

Hi! My name is Amanda Maeglin, and I am a rising senior at Vanderbilt University with a triple major in Physics, English, and the Communication of Science and Technology. I am from New York City, and I am so excited tospend the summer in Washington DC as the APS Public Engagement STEP UP Intern! I am incredibly passionateabout expanding access to high quality physics education, and I hope to work as a physics educator in the future.I am also interested in the intersection of science and art. As an English major, I am on a creative writing track witha focus in poetry, and I love exploring the connections between my literary and scientific interests! At Vanderbilt, Iam the incoming president of SPS, and I have previously served as the vice president and the social chair. I amalso an editor and writer for the Vanderbilt WRVU Radio Blog, which covers local concerts in Nashville as well asindie and alternative music across the world. Outside of school, I enjoy playing guitar, writing music, cooking, andfinding fun ways to stay active!

Internship

Host: American Physical Society

Internship Blog

Week 1: Settling In

Hi! My name is Amanda Maeglin, and I am the APS STEP UP intern this summer. I am a rising senior at Vanderbilt University, where I am triple majoring in Physics, English with a creative writing concentration, and the Communication of Science and Technology. I am so excited to be working for APS this summer, and I can’t wait to write about my work, and my other adventures in DC, for the next nine weeks!

Although I live in New York City, and have been to DC many times before, arriving here was certainly an adventure. My cousin got married on the 26th, so I arrived in DC a day later than most of the other interns. Unfortunately, my phone decided to entirely stop working the day before the wedding, and I had to go get it replaced in the morning before driving down to DC. This took quite a while and we got a late start on the road. We also grabbed dinner when we arrived, which delayed my move-in just long enough that it was pouring rain by the time we pulled up to Shenkman Hall. Upon arriving at my room, we discovered that my key did not work and I could not get inside. After a long call with the support hotline, we were finally able to get in. Needless to say, my DC experience had an interesting start. I’m hoping that I got all the hiccups out of the way, and that it will be smooth sailing for the rest of the summer!

On the other hand, starting my internship has been an absolutely wonderful experience! All the interns attended orientation on Tuesday, where we learned more about AIP and SPS, got to get to know each other a little better, and talked about the structure of the internship. I had a great time getting to meet all the other interns and learning more about what everyone will be doing this summer. After orientation, myself and the other APS interns had an IT orientation and an APS orientation that we attended on Zoom. I got to speak with my mentor Nicole for the first time since my interview, and learn a little more about APS and the work I will be doing! For the rest of the week, I mostly worked on learning more about the STEP UP program. STEP UP is designed to encourage more high school aged girls to pursue undergraduate physics. The bulk of the program is a series of two lessons – Careers in Physics and Women in Physics – that are taught during the school year. I read through the lessons and completed their various activities, read through the program’s grant proposals, and learned more about female involvement in physics across the world. At the end of the week, I had a meeting with the leaders and regional coordinators of STEP UP, where I got to learn more about what they have been working on over the past couple months. The regional coordinator for New York City actually teaches at the high school I went to! I was also invited to attend an APS webinar on building trust in science communication on Thursday, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I definitely learned a lot this first week, and I am excited to start diving into more of my work in week two!

I have also really enjoyed getting to know the other interns in the program and having the chance to explore DC. Because my job is fully remote, I want to figure out some good places to work from. I don’t love staying home all day, so I have been trying to go to a different location each day to see what works best for me. I have already found a couple of cute coffee shops that I like, and have even been able to go outside and take advantage of some of the lovely sunny days. Outside of work, I have already gone to some really exciting events. On Friday, another intern Maia and I went to a concert at the National Museum of American History where eight students from the National Orchestral Institute played rare instruments from the museum’s collection, including Stradivarius violins! It was absolutely incredible to witness. Immediately after that we went with several other interns to Heurich House where we saw a fascinating exhibit by Xena Ni about time travel and using our hope for the future to inspire action in the present. I was absolutely delighted to have such an art-filled Friday! This weekend, I explored Georgetown with my roommate Brynn and one of my friends from school. It was such a cute area, and I am excited to go back. I also have really appreciated living so close to the National Mall. I’ve gone on a couple lovely walks over there, and even saw a baby duck while I was strolling around the reflecting pool!

Overall, it has been a very wonderful first week, and I am really looking forward to the rest of the summer. We have a lot of exciting things planned for next week, and I can’t wait to write about them!

Week 2: Establishing a Routine

Going into week two, my biggest goal was to establish a routine. Having already become acquainted with my living space, the other interns, and my work for the summer, I wanted to start creating habits and a schedule that will make my internship experience not only productive, but also fun and rewarding. I was excited to dig into my work a little more, and to start to get a sense for what the rest of my summer in DC will look like.

While most of the work I did last week revolved around understanding the context of my internship, this week I was able to get the ball rolling on several of the projects I will be working on this summer. The STEP UP program has many moving parts, and it seems as though my internship will as well. I will be working on expanding the physicist profiles in the Careers in Physics lesson, as well as updating the statistics in the Women in Physics lesson. I am also collaborating on a poster to present network analysis work done by a previous intern at the upcoming American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) conference next month. Finally, I am helping to craft extensions for physics lessons that teachers can use to enhance student learning experiences. I spent most of my time this week identifying possible new physicists whose profiles we could add to the Careers in Physics lesson. My goal was to find physicists who strayed from the dominant narrative of what it means to pursue a career in physics. By exposing students to these counternarratives, the lesson shows students that there are many career options available to them after pursuing an undergraduate physics degree. In order to identify the most promising profiles, I spent some time learning about counternarratives and their effects on student perceptions and goals. I also spent some time learning about network analysis in preparation to start working on the AAPT poster. The first step in this process is an extensive literature review on network analysis and its use (or lack thereof) in education research, so I wanted to establish a solid understanding of the topic before fully diving into research. It has been incredibly exciting to start my work in earnest this week, and I am really looking forward to continuing these projects. I was also able to go into work at the DC AIP office for the first time this week, which I really enjoyed. It is such a great workspace, and I appreciated being surrounded by other interns rather than alone at my desk. I will definitely be going back more often in the coming weeks!

Outside of my day to day work, this has been an exciting week of internship programming. On Wednesday, we attended the Trimble Lecture where John Mather and Mark Clampin spoke about searching for life outside of the solar system. The lecture was absolutely fascinating! I particularly appreciated the joint emphasis on communication and people skills as a part of the scientific process. This is something that I am incredibly passionate about, although I feel it often gets overlooked in discussion about science. It was so heartening to hear two esteemed scientists speak about its importance! I was also able to talk to John Mather after the lecture, which was absolutely exhilarating. We discussed science communications and writing, and he was incredibly kind and engaged even though he had spent the whole evening talking to other people. He seemed genuinely interested in our conversation, and he even recommended a book to read! This was by far the highlight of my evening. On Thursday we went on a dinner cruise along the Potomac. I honestly was not sure what to expect, having never been on a dinner cruise before, but I had an excellent time. We saw beautiful sights, ate some yummy food, and shared exciting conversations. There was even a dance floor and a DJ!

I was also able to explore some exciting parts of DC outside of work and the internship programming this week. I joined a climbing gym in Arlington, and I am really enjoying going each day before work. Not only do they have a full gym and bouldering walls, but they also have 6:30am yoga twice a week. I love starting my days with movement, and so I have really appreciated incorporating this into my routine. There is also a dog run on the way to the gym, so I get to see adorable puppies each time I go! This weekend was also very exciting. I went to Eastern Market on Saturday with a friend from school, where I thoroughly enjoyed poking around the different stands. Later in the day I went to the pride parade with some other interns, as well as a couple of my friends from school. We all had an absolute blast! It has been so cool to explore DC and to start to get a sense for the city’s energy and community. I can’t wait to continue seeing and experiencing even more of the city in the coming weeks!

Week 3: Good Music, Good Friends, and Gardening

Three weeks into the summer, I can say with near certainty that I have settled into a good rhythm in DC. Although I love spontaneous plans as much as the next person, I am definitely a creature of habit and pattern. I love a schedule and a routine, so I am thrilled to have established mine for the summer! I am sure that this routine will be disrupted over the next few weeks with exciting opportunities, last minute plans, and much more (which I am quite excited for!), but I am happy to have created a good baseline for my summer in DC.

In the effort of establishing positive habits, I made an effort to go into ACP as much as I could this week. Not only does the office environment motivate me to stay productive, but I also really enjoy working around the other interns. It is always fun to hear what everyone else is working on, and I’ve even been able to pick their brains about some of my projects when I am stumped. For example, this past week I primarily worked on developing lesson extensions for the PhysicsQuest2024 lessons on plasma. Lesson extensions are optional activities that teachers can add to a lesson to deepen student engagement with the material. The extensions that I was working on had three categories: real world connections, creative expression, and engineering/design. Although I felt reasonably confident with the first two, I struggled to come up with middle school friendly engineering activities around plasma, so I decided to ask the other interns if they had any ideas. Immediately, Charles told me about an experiment that involves microwaving a grape to create plasma! I was absolutely enthralled by the idea, and we spent some time watching videos of the experiment and reading about how it works. Although my mentor and I ultimately decided that it would be irresponsible to tell a bunch of middle school students to create plasma in their microwaves, we had a lot of fun learning about the experiment!

On Friday, Jack Hehn took Jenna, Maia, and myself to a symphony performed by the students in the National Orchestral Institute. I had never been to a symphony before, and I was absolutely delighted! The piece they were playing was Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz, and one of my favorite parts of the evening was the musicologist who explained the story of the symphony to the audience before the show. I can honestly say that I have never heard a more dramatic backstory to a piece of music! It involved unrequited love, execution, witches, and more. And the best part was that it was apparently semi autobiographical! We spent a lot of time learning about Berlioz, and even more time researching him after the talk. He had a fascinating life, and I would definitely recommend looking into him, and Symphonie fantastique. The music itself was absolutely incredible. All of the musicians in the National Orchestral Institute are under the age of 30, and most are between 18 and 23, and we were all amazed by how well they played. There is nothing quite like listening to music played by a large orchestra, and I definitely hope I can go to another one of their events this summer!

I was also able to continue my explorations around DC this week. On Sunday, I went with a friend from school to grab a coffee and stroll through the Dupont Farmers Market. We had so much fun looking at the different stands and trying all the fresh fruit samples. Because one of my childhood friends just moved to the Arlington area, and I had plans to help her plant her garden later that day, I decided to buy her a couple plants from the farmers market as a housewarming gift. I got her rosemary and spearmint, and then I bought myself a little basil plant! I absolutely love fresh basil, so I am excited to have it to cook with for the rest of the summer. Later that day I took the metro to meet up with my friend for our gardening plans. We planted spinach, beans, zucchini, squash, and kale. I love gardening but, because I live in the city year round, it is not often that I get to put my hands in the dirt. I really enjoyed helping her plant, even though I am now absolutely covered in mosquito bites! She also said that I can come back and help her tend the garden throughout the summer, which I absolutely will take her up on!

Overall, week three was really wonderful, especially because of the people I spent it with. I feel lucky to have so many of my friends in the area, as well as all of the other SPS interns. I really like my little community here, and I am excited to continue watching it grow over the next few weeks!

Week 4: A Brief Trip Home

Listen. I know that I wrote last week that I had finally established a good routine in DC, but week four took that routine and tossed it out the window. It was definitely one of the busier weeks I’ve had this summer, which is a bit ironic seeing as we had the day off of work on Wednesday for Juneteenth. That being said, it was definitely a good week!

I spent most of my time at work this week wrapping up the PhysicsQuest 2024 Lesson Extensions. I got to share my ideas with Nicole, and we spent some time tweaking them together. This is the first project I’ve worked on for my internship where I have produced so much original work and creative ideas, instead of just identifying information that we can use for lessons, and it was really nice to get to share my work! I really appreciated Nicole’s thoughts on my ideas, and how appreciative she was for the thought I had put into the extensions. My biggest takeaway from working on the lessons is that developing educational materials is really challenging! Trying to come up with creative ways to help younger kids engage with challenging concepts like plasma and nuclear fusion definitely stretched my creative abilities, and renewed my appreciation for science educators. I’m definitely interested in working on more lesson development, as it is a skill I’d really like to develop.

This week I also sent out my first email to the physicists I identified over the past couple weeks as possible additions to the Careers in Physics STEP UP lesson. I am so excited to get the ball rolling on the next step of this project, and I can’t wait to interview anyone who responds with interest!

Outside of work, part of what made this week so busy is that I went home for a couple days to see a doctor, celebrate my mom’s birthday, and go to a concert. I spent a lot of time on the train, both Amtrak and LIRR, going back and forth between DC, New York City, and Long Island, and so I got pretty comfortable working while in transit. I actually love taking the train, so I didn’t mind! It is so nice how easy it is to go between DC and NYC, because it was really great to go home for a few days. I was happy to be able to see my parents and brothers, and to be able to celebrate my mom’s birthday at home. We also saw Lizzy McAlpine play at Radio City Music Hall, which was absolutely incredible. I love her music, and she was absolutely amazing live. This was one of those weeks where I really appreciated the flexibility of my remote job. It was so nice that I could go home and still finish everything that I needed to get done for work!

Once I got back to DC, there was still lots to do! I went with Brynn to her tattoo appointment on Thursday, and let me be the first to tell you that it looks SPECTACULAR! She has single handedly increased our household coolness by at least a factor of 10. Then, on Saturday, we had Astronomy on the Mall, which I can wholeheartedly say I was not (nor could I probably ever be) prepared for. It was held indoors due to the absolutely horrendous heat in DC, which was probably a good idea in terms of safety. However, Astronomy on the Mall has a live DJ (think physics demos meets rave?), and the echoes of “Jump! Jump! Jump!” off the high ceilings were still banging around my brain hours after the event ended. If you had told me a few weeks ago that this summer would include explaining (read: yelling) about waves and spacetime to little kids over the background of a live DJ, I would have told you that you were crazy. But I would have been wrong! It was definitely a unique experience, but we got through it! And maybe even taught some people something cool about physics in the process.

On Sunday, Brynn, Charlotte, and I braved the heat and humidity to walk 45 (yes, 45) minutes to the Georgetown Flea Market. Was it cool? Yes! Am I an absolute baby when it comes to heat and humidity? Also yes! I did drag Brynn to Safeway to get a cold bottle of water, and we both stuck our heads in the beer cooler. No regrets. When we got back to the flea market, we met my friend from school, Evan. The two of us got matching permanent bracelets (so cute!) and we all poked around a little bit. After a while, I was simply too hot to have flea market stamina, so Evan, Charlotte, and I braved the 45 minute trudge back to Shenkman where I promptly collapsed in my bed. Later that night, I watched the first Spider-Man movie with some of the other interns. I had never seen it, and it is definitely a strange movie. My two main takeaways are that Toby Maguire doesn’t blink enough, and that the Green Goblin is a freaky freaky dude.

Even though it was a busy week, and definitely a little out of the ordinary, it was still a good one! However, I am definitely excited to be back in DC, back on my routine, and ready to see what the next week has in store for me.

Week 5: A (Not So Brief) Love Letter to My Gym

The end of week 5 marked the halfway point of our internships, which is absolutely wild. These past five weeks have been so excitingly busy, I almost haven’t noticed the time slipping by!

After the slight chaos of last week, I was happy to be back in DC and back on my routine. Don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely lovely to see my family! But I am nothing if not a creature of habit, and I was over the moon to have my silly little routine to slip back into this week. Call me crazy, but one of the things that has consistently brought me the most joy this summer has been my gym. I’ve mentioned it a couple times in my blog before, but I don’t think I’ve ever explained why I am so obsessed with this place. So, without further ado, here is a brief explanation of why Amanda spends a million hours a week in Crystal City:

First and foremost, my gym has literally everything I want. Weightlifting stuff? Check. Various cardio situations? Check. Bouldering? Also check. Yoga? Yup, you guessed it, also check! This excellent array of fitness opportunities is a HUGE part of my minor obsession with the place. I simply cannot financially justify paying for two gym memberships, and so I really like that I don’t have to pick between all of the active things I like to do. The second thing that I love about this gym is they have 6:30am yoga twice a week! Woohoo! I love waking up early, and I really like that yoga gives me even more motivation to get to the gym when I want to. I am also mildly obsessed with Susie, the yoga instructor who teaches those classes. This week she said “no one has your biology and your biography.” Absolutely profound. Long live Susie. Because I am already getting to the gym early twice a week for yoga, I’ve structured the rest of my week the same way. I usually get to the gym around 6:30am, which I love because it gives me enough time to fit in multiple things before work! Depending on the day, I usually lift then climb, do yoga then lift, or cardio then climb. I also go to yoga most Monday nights, so sometimes on those days I lift, climb, and do yoga. Go crazy go stupid! This routine brings me so much joy that I’m not even exaggerating when I say I practically skip out the door every day. And, because my mom is usually waking up around when I leave the gym, I usually call her on the walk back to the Metro. Yay! I love this place.

The gym was particularly notable for two reasons this week. The first is that I took Charles and Reidyn bouldering after work on Friday! This was an absolute blast, and the two of them were cracking me up the whole time. For two people who don’t have a ton of experience bouldering, I thought they did a great job! I had a lot of fun helping them with hand/foot placement, and getting excited with them when they finally reached the top of a route they were working on. We also befriended a really nice climbing gal, who had lots of good pointers for all three of us! She was a lot of fun - I really hope I run into her again sometime. On Saturday, I recieved a text from Reidyn that said “everything hurtsssssssss,” so I would say we had a successful evening climbing. The second notable gym moment this week is that there was a tiny goat at the gym on Saturday! They were having a little celebration for the gym’s 8th birthday, and for some reason brought in a goat and some alpacas? I obviously pet the goat, and we immediately became best friends. I still regret that I didn’t bring it home with me in my gym bag.

Besides the gym, we got up to a lot of other fun stuff this week! On Tuesday, my friend Evan’s mom was in town, and she took Evan and I to dinner at Martin’s Tavern. I had a burger on one of the best gluten free buns I have ever had. What a win! On Friday, we went to an outdoor showing of Ratatouille at the Kennedy Center, and on Saturday I got lunch with Evan and Brynn in Georgetown. I had fries and a salad (an Amanda classic), and then we had a lovely little stroll around Georgetown. On Sunday, a bunch of the interns (along with Evan and Jaden’s friend Chris) went to Cunningham State Park to do a little hike and go swimming. I stuck my head in a waterfall, read my book in the sun, and had a blast tackling the other interns while playing monkey in the middle and jackpot in the lake. It was a great end to the week! The only downside was that Muji hurt his ankle while we were there. He was an absolute champ about the whole thing though, and I really hope he feels better soon!

Work this week was a lot of reading and planning. I scheduled two interviews for the Physics Careers Profiles (exciting!!) and read an absolutely massive report about women in physics across the world. We also finished our poster for AAPT. Even though I can’t go, I am excited that something I worked on will be presented there!

It’s a little sad to think that I am already halfway through my time in DC with the other interns. I have been having such a good time here, and I’ll be bummed when it’s over. However, I am so excited that we still have another 5 weeks left to fill with work, play, and lots of shenanigans!

Week 6: Independence Day Chaos

Six weeks into the summer and it seems as though I’ve established an unintentional pattern: one week cruising along on my silly little routine, immediately followed by one week where my routine flies out the window and smashes into a million (fun and exciting) little pieces. I’ve started thinking of the latter as my “chaos weeks,” so I figured it’s about time I introduce this terminology to my blogs. Is the term chaos week slightly dramatic? Perhaps. Do I always enjoy my chaos weeks? Absolutely! Do they induce slight amounts of panic as I float freely through time and space, unanchored by a routine? No comment. Since last week was a silly little routine week, I was inevitably due for a chaos week. And what better way to introduce chaos than by celebrating the 4th of July in our nation’s capital.

Because of the aforementioned independence day celebrations, I had a measly three days of work this week. Nicole is going to the AAPT conference next week, so I spent a lot of time planning out the next week and making sure I set myself up to chug along with my projects while she is busy. I did my first of two interviews for the new Careers in Physics profiles for STEP UP, and it went really well! I spoke with a woman who partners with local energy companies to implement renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. I have a lot of experience interviewing people for my science communications degree and, even though I haven’t interviewed anyone in a few months, I was pleased to feel myself slipping right back into the familiar rhythm. One of my favorite parts of our conversation was when she told me she started taking ballet classes as an adult after learning that her daughter’s ballet studio offered classes for adults. I absolutely loved this story, and thought it was a great reminder that it is never too late to start something new! In addition to working on the profiles project, I also wrapped up my project for the Women in Physics STEP UP lesson. The big report on women in physics that I read last week was actually a compilation of abstracts of longer papers on the state of women in physics in countries across the world. I sifted through all of the papers that I could access through the Vanderbilt library system and pulled statistics on women in undergraduate physics programs so that I could make an updated graphic for the Women in Physics lesson. I can’t lie, the whole thing was a little bleak. Women are consistently and considerably underrepresented in physics around the world, which is unsurprising but still a big bummer. However, reading about all the women who are pursuing physics, and the initiatives in place to encourage more female participation, made me even more determined to get my degrees. Yay women in STEM! We love them! We need more of them!

Although I have lamented the breakdown of routine that occurs during my chaos weeks, I was very excited for the four day weekend. I’ve never been that passionate about the 4th of July, but I was curious to see what it was like to celebrate it in DC. The morning of the 4th, Brynn woke up and immediately put on an America themed playlist that really got us into the holiday spirit. We went over to Jaden’s frat house to grill some hot dogs before heading over to the mall to get a good spot to watch the fireworks. I can’t lie, the mall was treacherous. We got rained on, swarmed by tiny little bugs, and sat in the hot humidity for what felt like a lifetime. The horrors truly persisted. While we were waiting for the fireworks to start, I played some Uno with Charlotte, her boyfriend who was in town, and my friend Evan. I didn’t win, but the two games did take up almost 45 minutes which was a win in my book. After several long hours of waiting, we finally got to watch the fireworks show. Was it fantastic? Yes. Did it have a fascinating and slightly confusing soundtrack? Yes. Did the extreme humidity cause the firework smoke to linger, ultimately obscuring some of the later fireworks? Also yes. All in all, it was a crazy afternoon, and I was very happy to go home, shower, and eat some food.

On Friday I went to the Natural History Museum with Ainsley, another one of my friends from school. We saw every exhibit (except for the cellphone one, which I really wasn’t that interested in) in just under three hours. Go team! We had a long and animated discussion about which animals we thought should and should not have bones (we think that it feels slightly wrong that snakes have bones) as well as which rocks looked like they would be the most fun to eat. Really scientific stuff. Then I went home and rested for a little before spending the night out and about with Jaden, Brynn, Kaden and his girlfriend who was in town, my friend Evan, and my brother’s girlfriend Maddie who lives in the DC area.

The second half of my weekend was much less eventful. I went to Call Your Mother with Evan on Saturday, and then spent the rest of the day at the climbing gym. Even in my chaos weeks, I still cling to my gym routine (see last week’s blog for an unnecessarily detailed description of why I am obsessed with my gym). On Sunday, Ainsley and I grabbed a coffee and a pastry (mine was a tasty gluten free cinnamon situation) from Baked and Wired in Georgetown, before heading over to the Georgetown Flea Market. Armed with electrolytes (and nightmares of my previous experience there), I actually had a really excellent time perusing the booths, and I even bought a cool ring!

As is inevitable with all chaos weeks, I did have a really excellent (and memorable) week. It was a treat to be able to spend so much time socializing, and to have some extra free days to explore DC!

Week 7: A Weekend in NYC

Week seven! It’s hard to believe that we are so close to the end of the summer – the days are really starting to fly by. This week was a rare combination of chaos week and routine week, which seems kind of fitting. Of course when I actually spell out my newfound pattern of routine week followed by chaos week it all dissolves.

This week was, for the most part, fairly standard. I bopped along with my gym and work routines without much disruption, and got to spend some time with the other interns and my friends. The weekend is where the real excitement happened, so for now I’ll give you a brief synopsis of my week and leave you in a state of extreme suspense about my weekend shenanigans.

Without further ado, here are the highlights of this week: On Monday night, after I got home from yoga, I joined some of the other interns who were watching the first episode of the new season of the Bachelorette. I’ve never seriously watched the Bachelorette before, and I pretty much only caught the rose ceremony, but even with absolutely no context I was still very amused. Now I’m definitely excited to watch episode two next week! On Tuesday I did my second (and last) interview for the new physicist profiles for the STEP UP Careers in Physics lesson. It went so well! I interviewed a woman who works at a nonprofit that is working on developing and expanding plant-based protein, which I thought was so cool. She was really nice, and super excited to learn about the STEP UP program! I have really enjoyed how excited people are about being included in STEP UP. It is cool to feel like I’m offering them something exciting and fun, especially because they are really helping me out by participating! After work, I went to happy hour with my friend Evan and one of his friends from high school. I had a great time chatting with both of them, and learning all of Evan’s high school secrets. Then, because it was crazy hot out and ice cream was 50% off at Whole Foods, the three of us trooped over to get a sweet treat. I got my favorite dairy free ice cream for only $2.50 which, in my opinion, was an excellent deal and well worth the trip! On Wednesday we had a lunch and learn conversation about grad school which, in all honesty, kind of stressed me out. I’m super excited about going to grad school, but the application process is daunting to say the least! On Thursday I went to happy hour at a sushi restaurant in NoMa with my friend Ainsley.The only available seats were outside, which was not ideal given the scorching temperatures and classic DC humidity, but it was at least shady and we had lots of ice water to drink! On the way back to the metro, we spotted a little book sale on the street and decided to explore. I ended up buying two books for only $12, which was highly exciting! I had never heard of either one, but they look really interesting and I’m really excited to read them. Then I came home and played some Mario Kart with the other interns before heading back to my room to pack. Pack for where, you might ask? Packing for home! That’s right, I was headed back to New York City for the weekend. And the best part was, I was taking my friend Evan with me!

Our New York shenanigans started bright and early on Friday morning with a 4:15am uber to Union Station. One thing I miss about home is that the subway never closes. But alas, the DC Metro does, so Evan and I waited bleary eyed in the lobby of Shenkman for our Uber. The Amtrak was pretty uneventful. I had a couple hours of (uncomfortable) sleep, and then Evan and I created the most nonsensical itinerary to perhaps ever grace the iphone notes app. She was beautiful. When we arrived at my apartment, I showed Evan around before hopping on a Google Meets call for the wildest job interview of my life (I accidentally interviewed to be a middle school science teacher? It’s a long story). We both worked for a little bit and then set out in the afternoon to bop around. Friday was dedicated to bagels and thrifting in Brooklyn with my brother Quinn and his girlfriend Maddie. Brooklyn thrifting is incredible, and I walked away with some great items. Then, we came home and quickly changed to go to a Mets game with the rest of my family! We made Evan wear a Mets jersey, and warned him not to get his hopes up for a victory. At the game, Evan and I split an absolutely massive tub of popcorn (it seriously could have fed a family of four – we barely made a dent) and thoroughly enjoyed the baseball ambiance. To our great surprise, the Mets actually won! We celebrated this with lots of high fives with the rest of my family, and played Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and 2010s pop the whole drive home.

On Saturday, we again started our day with bagels (is there any other way?) before hopping on the subway so that Evan could go see Columbia Law School. We walked around the campus for a bit, then headed down to Central Park to take a stroll around the lake. I was Evan’s designated personal photographer for the weekend, and so we took lots of fabulous (and some not so fabulous) photos by the lake and on the rocks. Then we hopped on the subway yet again to go look at NYU Law School (in case you haven’t guessed yet, Evan really wants to go to law school) and stroll around Washington Square Park. It was ridiculously hot, so by the time we were done walking around we were thirsty, tired, and sweaty. We headed back to my apartment to flop for a while before venturing back out to do a little shopping and bop around with Evan’s friend from school Matt. Matt lives in New Jersey, so he spent the night at my apartment and the next day we all got breakfast together at my all time favorite spot. Then Evan and I spent the day strolling along the Hudson, through SoHo, and in Greenwich Village. We got some tasty tacos, got rained on, and took several more photos. Then, in the evening, we went up to Times Square. As a native New Yorker, I don’t usually go there, but Evan wanted to go to the M&M store and I was not about to say no to that. We both got an excellent selection of M&Ms (my favorites were caramel and peanut butter) before walking through the crazy crowds to take some (you guessed it) even more photos! These were honestly some of my best work – if anyone needs a photographer just let me know (I took 350 photos of Evan this weekend – I counted)! Then we went home and packed up our stuff for our even earlier Amtrak (4:20am) back to DC. It was an excellent weekend!

It was really nice to go home for the weekend, and I had a great time showing Evan around the city. But I’m also glad to be back in DC now! The end of the internship is looming in the (not so far) distance, and I’m excited to soak up all the time I have left with the rest of the interns!

Week 8: The Chaos Continues

It’s absolutely crazy to me that I only have two weeks left in DC. It feels like just yesterday that I arrived here, not knowing anybody but excited for the summer to start. Now I know this group of 16 interns so well, and I’m staring down the end of our time together. Week seven was definitely a chaos week. As the end of my internship approaches, I think that a little chaos is becoming almost as routine as 6:30am yoga or the Bachelorette on Tuesdays.

The week immediately started out chaotic. As I mentioned in my previous blog, my friend Evan and I took a 4:20am Amtrak from NYC to DC on Monday. In a moment of sheer brilliance, we both decided to stay awake until it was time to leave, rather than getting in a few hours of precious comfortable sleep before the trip. By the time we got on the train, I was incredibly tired, and I fell asleep almost instantly. As someone who really loves the Amtrak (or any train ride really), I consider myself a pro at sleeping on the train. My favorite technique is to put the tray table down and rest my head and arms on it. However, no matter how excellent I am at falling asleep on the train, there is one thing that never changes: sleeping on the train is simply not comfortable. Resting my head on my arms means I will inevitably wake up about a million times throughout the night with my arms fast asleep and dead to all sensation. Not ideal sleeping conditions. Needless to say, by the time we arrived at Union Station I was scarcely more rested than when we had gotten on the train. We hurried back to Shenkman and I decided I had enough time to squeeze in a couple more hours of sleep before starting my work day. This was a BIG MISTAKE. I am a firm believer that a nap will always either fix my life or ruin it. This one was a life ruiner. I woke up on a different planet, unsure of where I was, and somehow even more tired than I was before. Brutal. I spent the rest of the day working (with several 15 minute nap breaks throughout) and then went to the gym that night to try to sweat the exhaustion out of my system.

On Tuesday morning I was far more rested, so I went to my beloved morning yoga. That evening after work I gathered with some of the other interns to watch the next episode of the Bachelorette. The show is extremely entertaining, especially because it is so unserious. And, I am SO glad I am not the Bachelorette. Seriously, that would be my nightmare. On Wednesday, I went into the office for our lunch and learn about science policy, then hurried home because Brynn’s sister Claire was staying with us and I needed to let her into Shenkman. Claire is super great, and it was so nice to have her here!

On Thursday, all the interns trooped out to NIST. The day started out absolutely great. We heard some interesting talks in the morning, and then got to walk around NIST and see some of the really cool stuff that goes on there. I had an absolute blast looking at the million pound deadweight and learning about forensic analysis. However, while we were sitting in the forensic lab, I raised my head to ask a question and realized I could no longer see the man who was teaching us about bullet analysis. As I sat there in mild panic, the edges of my vision began to waver. Having lived in my own body for 22 years, I knew there was only one thing that could mean. That’s right folks, I was getting a migraine. And I was stuck at NIST for the next several hours. By the time we made it back to Brad’s office for a Q&A before the final talk of the day, my migraine was in full swing. Huge shoutout to Maia, who gave me some Advil, and the lovely people at NIST who gave me two bottles of water. I spent the rest of the day counting down the seconds until we got to leave, which was tragic because I was actually interested in everything we were learning. Somehow I made it through the last couple hours at NIST and the hour and a half commute home, and I immediately passed out in my bed at 5:30pm. I hate migraines.

By the time I woke up on Friday, my migraine was thankfully gone and I was able to have a more normal day. Charles, Reidyn, and I had a really interesting conversation with Martin, one of the associate editors for Physical Review, where we learned a lot about the peer review process and what happens behind the scenes of scientific journals. In the afternoon, Maia, Charlotte, and I journeyed over to Georgetown so that Maia and I could get new ear piercings. We had been planning to get piercings together since basically the start of the internship, so it was so exciting that we were finally able to go! We both got our left conch (kind of in the middle of your ear) pierced, and they’re SO cute! Then I hurried home to meet my friend Freya so we could drive to Charlottesville to spend the weekend with her girlfriend, Isabel.

The weekend in Charlottesville was so fun! On Saturday, we went to Isabel’s professor’s home gym (actually the nicest home gym setup I have ever seen, it was seriously crazy) and walked around the farmers market. Then we drove to the Bold Rock Orchard to try some pickle flavored cider (I don’t recommend it) and hang out with some of Freya and Isabel’s friends from grad school. They were all so nice, and the orchard was beautiful. Then, we drove to a vineyard for a picnic dinner and some live music. It was absolutely delightful! On Sunday, we went back to the home gym and then got some tasty arepas for lunch. Then we went back to Isabel’s house to flop and watch some Orange is the New Black before Freya and I drove home. I haven’t seen Isabel since December, so it was really nice to catch up with her. Charlottesville is also an absolutely gorgeous area of Virginia, and I thoroughly enjoyed all the rolling hills and various animals (horses, cow, sheep, deer, and donkeys!) that we saw. All in all, a lovely little weekend!

I’m looking forward to the last couple weeks of the internship a lot. While I have quite a bit to wrap up for work, and I’ll be sad to say goodbye to this group of interns, I’m quite excited for two more weeks of final shenanigans with everyone before we have to leave!

Week 9: Worlds Collide

Week nine! The last full week of work has come and gone, and I’ve had to face the fact that I’ll be all packed up and on my way home in less than a week. It is truly crazy how fast the summer flew by! Last week I predicted that the closer I get to the end of my internship, the more chaotic my weeks will become. With everything from thunderstorms, alien legos, photography trivia, and reunions with college friends, week nine showed me that my prediction was spot on.

My week started off anything but ordinary. Why, you might ask? Because I had an appointment to get a tattoo on Monday! The tattoo I got was of three geese, based on the Mary Oliver poem Wild Geese . I absolutely adore this poem, and Mary Oliver in general, and I am so happy with how my new tattoo turned out. Because the tattoo shop I went to was in Adams Morgan, I also got the opportunity to cross another item off of my DC bucket list. There is a 100% gluten free bakery in Adams Morgan that I spotted during the first week here, and I have been wanting to try it all summer. However, I don’t venture over there often (especially not during the day), so I have never had the chance to go. I was thrilled that my tattoo appointment gave me the perfect excuse to go try a gluten free croissant! I also picked up some other goodies to sample later. My favorite was the buttermilk biscuit! I toasted it and ate it for breakfast on Tuesday with some blueberries that I cooked with cinnamon and maple syrup. YUM. If you eat gluten you could probably get a better croissant literally anywhere. As a gluten free individual, on the other hand, my verdict is that the bakery absolutely rocked. However, I think my morning was simply too exciting and I needed to get brought back down to earth. Which I did, in the form of an absolutely torrential downpour that let loose while I was walking the 40 minutes back to Shenkman. My umbrella did next to nothing, and I was soon soaked. When I realized the storm had no end in sight, I decided to duck into a tatte and work from there for a while. Once I dried off, I went home to meet Charles and Reidyn so we could go bouldering. When we got to the gym, the power was out and the whole bouldering area was dark but they still let us climb! Turns out it’s a lot harder when you can’t see where to put your hands and feet. I didn’t climb a ton due to the aforementioned new tattoo, but I had a blast navigating the walls with my iPhone flashlight. I can’t say I would recommend climbing in the semi-darkness, but it was certainly a silly experience!

On Tuesday, we toured the Niels Bohr Library and Archives, which was really interesting. We got to see Richard Feynman’s college notebook, and learned about the various materials they store in the archive. We played some archive themed trivia afterwards, where I learned that I know next to nothing about archives. My team did end up winning, but I think that’s just because we were excellent guessers. On Wednesday I got to speak with the editor of APS News, which was really cool. We talked about the behind the scenes of journalism, science communication, and some of the reporting work that I have done at school. It’s been so cool to learn about the various jobs that exist at APS!

We had an intern appreciation lunch at ACP on Thursday for National Intern Day. It was the first time since orientation that so many interns have been in the office at once, which I really enjoyed. After work, Charlotte, Charles, Brynn, and I went to the gym to take a Rocket yoga class and do some climbing. Rocket yoga is a little nuts, and it was perhaps the strangest yoga class I have ever taken. Highlights include lots of headstands, the instructor singing John Mayer at the end of class, and the very strange head massage I received during savasana. Did I like it? I honestly could not tell you. Did I have fun? Yes, loads! However, I had already gone to yoga with Suzy (my icon) and lifted that morning, so by the time we finished climbing I was absolutely exhausted and ready to go to bed.

On Friday we spent all day at NASA Goddard! We got to learn about Hubble repair missions and asteroids, see a prototype of a LISA telescope (!!!), and observe a clean room where parts of the Nancy Grace Roman telescope are being assembled. Jaden also gave me one of the tiny LEGO aliens from the mystery minifigure he bought at the gift shop. What a great day! After we got back to Shenkman, I met my friend Ainsley for happy hour at Duke’s Grocery. She had been in Paris the week before, and it was nice to catch up and hear all about her trip!

On Saturday, my friend Evan and I joined several of the interns for brunch at a Japanese restaurant. I have never eaten sushi for breakfast before, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Afterwards, Evan and I hopped on the metro to meet my friend (and college roommate) Ella at the airport! Ella is staying with me for a few days in DC, and I am so excited to have her here. On Saturday night, Ella, Evan, and I met up with Ainsley for some tasty Indian food in NoMa, before heading to watch the Olympics with some other friends from Vanderbilt. After being in DC all summer, it was nice to see so many people from school! On Sunday, Ella, Evan, and I went to Georgetown. We walked around the Flea Market, where I bought some really cool rings, and checked out some of the other shops. Then we picked up some snacks from Trader Joes and came home to watch Sex and the City. Ella and I have been watching the show together, and we have a great time laughing about all of the terrible decisions that the main characters make. After our little snack and rest, we headed back out to swing by the Intern Olympics opening ceremony on the way to meet Ainsley for dinner and a walk. We were so caught up in our conversation that we ended up walking the entire mall! I have actually never done this before, and I can definitely see why people rent scooters and bikes. The mall is long!

It was really nice to be able to see some friends from school this week while also spending time with the other interns. This week definitely felt like a nice preview into all the good things that are waiting for me back at school, which makes it a little easier to say goodbye to all the wonderful things I have had here in DC this summer.

Week 10: The Last Hurrah

It’s hard to believe that, as I write this final blog, my internship is already over. When I first accepted my offer and started thinking about the summer, ten weeks felt like forever. In reality, the summer flew by, and ten weeks were gone before I knew it! This summer was busy, fun, exciting, unexpected, joyful, and over far too soon.

The last week of the internship was sad and exciting at the same time. On the one hand, there were so many exciting things going on! I saw friends from school, finished my presentation, and had exciting activities planned with the rest of the interns (or “The Physicists,” which is how I’ve referred to our cohort all summer). On the other hand, each day brought us closer to the final hurrah and eventual goodbyes. It was definitely a bittersweet week.

As I mentioned in my last blog, my friend Ella was staying with me until Wednesday, so on Monday I took her to my gym before work. We had a great time lifting and climbing together, and then I went to ACP to wrap up some projects and work on my presentation. That night, my friend Evan, Ella, and I took Brynn to meet up with some of our friends from Vanderbilt for tacos and happy hour. We got caught in the rain on the way there, but had a wonderful time catching up with each other!

On Tuesday, I went to my last 6:30am yoga class with Suzy. Tragedy. I adored my early morning yoga and I miss her already. Then Ella and I went to Tatte to grab a coffee and do some work. I spent the morning finishing up my presentation slides, which I presented in a meeting with the other APS interns that afternoon. It was great to have a practice run of my presentation because I went through the whole thing WAY to fast. My first run through only took me five minutes! That night, Ella and I met up with our friend Ainsley to grab dinner on the wharf. After dinner, we took a walk along the water and discovered a Ben & Jerry’s popup where they were giving out free dairy-free ice cream. It was SO tasty! We ate our ice cream and walked along the water – it was absolutely delightful.

On Wednesday, Ella and I went to the gym again before scurrying home so she could head to the airport. Then I headed back to the gym because there was a climb that I was determined to conquer before leaving DC. It was a super fun climb where I had to start horizontal to the ground (think hanging from a short ceiling) then climb around a ledge and up to the top. It was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever climbed, and I kept getting stuck one hold away from the top. I went back with the mission to climb it and, with the help of some newfound climbing friends, I did! I left exhausted but incredibly proud of myself! That night, my friend Evan and I went to meet up with my brother Quinn and his girlfriend Maddie to get dinner with her parents. They made us slow cooked pork and corn-on-the-cob. It was delicious! After dinner, Quinn, Maddie, Evan, and I went to Jeni’s for ice cream. It was an incredibly tasty night.

On Thursday, we all trooped over to ACP for practice presentations. It was great to run through my presentation again, and to hear some of the other intern’s presentations as well. I got great feedback from Mikayla and Kayla, and left super excited for the next day. Afterwards, Jenna and I went to Trader Joe’s to grab some goodies for our potluck that night. Then, I spent the afternoon packing. All the Physicists gathered in Kai and Maia’s room for our last potluck that night, which was very silly. It was clear we were all at the end of our food reserves, because the food choices were a little bizarre. There were chili dogs, quesadillas, eggs, chicken breast, bread, an abundance of chips and salsa, and a surplus of pickles. It was nice to have all of us in the same room (plus my friend Evan, who at this point was basically like a 17th intern) one more time before our presentations. We ate, talked, laughed, and reminisced about all the fun times we had this summer. Evan said goodbye to the Physicists (so sad) and we eventually parted ways to rest up before our big day on Friday.

Friday was so exciting! We all headed over to ACP bright and early, dressed in our finest, for breakfast before our presentations. My presentation was second to last, so I had quite a while to wait. I thoroughly enjoyed cheering on my fellow interns and learning more about what they had worked on over the summer. Then, finally, it was time for my presentation. I was definitely more than a little nervous, but I got through it just fine! I was also excited about the question that I was asked, which was about the rate of increase of undergraduate physics students across the world, because I was very prepared to answer it. It also gave me the chance to share a little more of the research I had done that summer that I hadn’t been able to fit into my talk. I am very proud of both the work I did this summer, and the presentation I gave about it! After we had all presented, Mikayla and Kayla surprised us by giving each of us a book they picked out specifically for us. They wrote personalized notes in them and everything. It was so thoughtful! After a break for lunch, we all signed each other’s books and started to say our goodbyes. It was sad, but also sweet. Even though it is sad to think that was the last time that group of people will all spend time together in the context of this program, as we said our goodbyes I couldn’t help but feel grateful to have been a part of such a special group. That night, I got dinner with some of the other interns at Tonic, and then we hung out until we got tired. We said some more goodbyes, and then I went to bed for my last sleep in Shenkman Hall.

On Saturday, I woke up early to go on a run, and then went back to Shenkman to finish up some packing. I also said goodbye to Brynn which was absolutely tragic. She was the most fabulous roommate I could have asked for, and I miss her dearly already. Then I met my dad (who drove down to DC to pick me up) at Tatte for a coffee! We sat down and caught up for a while before heading back to pack up the car. Once my dorm was painfully empty, we headed to go pick up my brother from Maddie’s house (where he was staying) and began the drive home.

Now I’m home and getting ready to begin my senior year at Vanderbilt. I’m excited to be back at school with all my friends, but I definitely miss the friends I made over the summer. The SPS internship was a unique and wonderful experience, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it. I met so many incredible people from all across the world and in so many different areas of physics. I learned so much about myself and the field I am preparing to enter, and I gained experience working in curriculum development, educational outreach, and so much more. I got the chance to explore DC and try so many fun new things, and I know I have gained lifelong friends. As I said before, endings are bittersweet. I miss my friends from the summer and the routine I grew to love, but I’m also excited to see what comes next. And I know that, no matter what comes next for me, I’ll always look back on this summer fondly!