• NASA
  • IPAC

Summer Visit - 2016 - HIPS AGN

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The HIPS AGN team came to visit in June 2016. The core team educators attended, plus 8 students.

Quotes

  • [student:] Though I don’t like to admit it, I had certain expectations regarding the teachers and students on this trip. To be entirely honest, I was expecting them to be a bunch of socially awkward nerds. Therefore, I was quite surprised to find that everyone was actually very normal—funny, talkative, and knowledgeable on a wide range of topics spanning past simply astronomy. It was certainly refreshing, and it made me realize that I’d fallen victim to an unfortunate stereotype.
  • [student:] The most important thing that I learned during my time at Caltech was definitely the importance of collaboration during large scale projects. I previously thought that scientific research was incredibly daunting and fiercely independent. But I learned how vital teamwork and a strong mentor is in the field of science is.
  • [student:] Coming together from all over the nation having the opportunity to collaborate on something greater than ourselves was amazing. I didn’t anticipate becoming so family-like with everyone so quickly. We meshed so well and I’m so thankful I was able to meet those people.
  • Our team worked so well together. We came in as strangers, we left as friends, we worked collegially as scientists, and we all grew together, both teachers and students.
  • [student:] This experience really normalized astronomers as people for me. I always felt that I was never smart enough to be an astronomer, and it was too out of reach for me. But it was so nice to see that everyone faced similar struggles as myself. This experiences helped solidify my goals of working in the field of astronomy, and made the dream seem much more feasible.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2016 - HIPS AGN