Sunday, June 16, 2019
By:
Week Three -
Over the past week, I have reached a major milestone in my work. A large part of what I am doing has to do with combining all the data from 1996 to 2018 about education and diversity. When this is done, others will be able to easily create new graphs and better understand where their university/Institution is compared to the rest of the Institutions in the USA. With that as a major goal to accomplish, this week I have succeeded in combining all the data from 2013-2017 from all bachelors, masters, and PhDs in physics. This is around 4 million data points combined into one easy to read file. From this starting point, I can now do some of my own analysis and continue to build this file up with more useful data. With that as the main accomplishment of the week, I am excited to continue my work and fulfill my other responsibilities as well such as documentation and analysis of the data collected. Now that my mentor has returned, I expect to accomplish more in the time given to me.
With that being said, I also had a wonderful week with Sariah and all the other Interns here. To name a few of the activities we participated in, we attended an orchestral concert which was a relaxing and amazing performance. We joined a one-night cruise on ‘The Odyssey’ which had amazing food, fun music to dance to, and company to enjoy the scenic views and night with. We also had a karaoke night which ended up bringing those of us that went closer together and provided an interesting take on the music we all enjoy. And to top it off, Sariah and I finished a tv show we had been watching, as well as a watermelon we had boughten a week prior.
It is surprising to realize that we are almost halfway done with our internships, and yet it feels like we just started. I am grateful for such strong-willed co-workers and friends as we enjoy the time here in DC together.
Sariah and I are making plans to visit New York this weekend to explore one of Americas tourist traps, as well as to spend some time with her family there. If you have any recommendations, tips/advice, or fun stories to share about New York let us know! We want to make the most of the time that we have to spend there. We will be leaving this Friday by bus (if everything works out) and will return that Sunday. Sadly, this means we can’t do everything there is to do there, but it is enough to enjoy the major things, and hit up a few places for some delicious food (for example some New York Pizza?)
In closing for the week, I am grateful for the challenges that this internship has put in front of me, as well as for the other interns and friends that are helping me learn and grow. I recommend this internship also for the supportive faculty and members of SPS that want to see us develop into being the best we can be.
Andrew Phipps