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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:] The best part of the trip was the people who made it into something so special. I don’t think I’ve ever quite met a group of people like that who I just completely clicked with like that. Being able to explore California, learn and expand my knowledge of space, hash out a ton of numbers over Microsoft Excel, and make memories to last with people who were complete strangers two weeks before was an opportunity that most don’t get to have, and I’m very fortunate to have been able to do. It was truly spectacular. Also, being able to interact and work with like-minded nerds was awesome. It was definitely refreshing to be put into a setting where everyone in the room cared.
  • [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:] This experience significantly changed the way I think of astronomers. Before going to Caltech and meeting Varoujan and Luisa, I believed astronomers needed to know everything and could not get anything wrong. However, after listening to many astronomers discuss their jobs, I learned that many times this is not the case. Astronomers often do not know the answers to some of their biggest questions and will sometimes think of theories that are incorrect. However, after realizing this, my respect for astronomers has only increased. Astronomers need to have the willpower to continue to try to solve a problem and the intelligence to discover what they do not know.
  • [student:] Even though I had to redo my work over 10 times, this still strengthened my skills and provided me extreme happiness in my efforts. I did receive a lot of help from both the students and the teachers. I also provided this same amount of health back to team members. Everyone was a big help rather than just one person.
  • Astronomy has some of the kindest and most passionate scientists around. They are great fun to work with.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2016 - HIPS AGN