Sunday, June 7, 2020
By:
As I woke up Monday morning, the air was charged with energy. In just a few moments, I would begin my internship journey, maybe a little bittersweet as we were not able to be in Washington, but exciting nonetheless. The rest of the interns, the SPS staff, and I spent the day on a zoom meeting learning the ins and outs of how the summer was to be structured. It was a beautiful day and a great welcome to the summer.
Early Tuesday, I awoke to prepare for my meeting with my mentor. Brián met with me over zoom, and we established a game plan for my summer. My day was spent perusing through files and getting more knowledge of the APS Bridge Program. What an excellent way to support underrepresented minorities and help them in their goals to attain a Ph.D.
On Wednesday, I began to research and work on a gameplan to tackle my summer, meeting with Brián and Natalie. They helped confirm my path and gave me good insight. While the day was extremely productive, I looked forward to the evening activities with much gusto. The other interns and I had decided to play Jackbox games via zoom. Although not everyone was able to make it, we had an exciting time playing and bonding together. I think that our weekly activities are going to become even better as we learn more about one another.
Thursday was spent pouring over the computer, looking for beneficial ways to help the Bridge Program. Of course this was also a very fun and exciting day, I got a package from SPS today!!! Not only did they send me posters, which I plan on framing and hanging in my future office, but they also sent a t-shirt and mug from the 2019 PhysCon. So exciting!! The best part of the care package was the Stuffed Spherical Cow. I was hoping to get one of these, I just never had the right opportunity to purchase it. What an awesome welcome to the summer gift.
As we quickly moved into Friday, I could not believe the first week was coming to a close. With a brief luncheon zoom meeting with a couple of the other interns as well as our supervisors, we closed out the week—what a way to start a crazy summer.
I look forward to the coming weeks and the innovative social activities even though we are spread across the US from one coast to the other.
Joseph Dees