Chelen Johnson
This virtual team collects all independent research presented in 2010, and done by NITARP or Spitzer alumni with students outside of a formal NITARP team. Four different teams presented results in 2010!
[Because of a poster I saw at the AAS and] my participation in the NITARP program, I will be raising the standards for my students in the future.
There was purpose to my wandering. [..]Last year [the AAS] was logistically and culturally educational, this year was truly informative. I felt much less out of place.
This experience convinced me even further that I can push myself to learn even more each and every day. I started out feeling very overwhelmed and unprepared last year. I forced myself to work through my unease and wound up much more comfortable. I learned that astronomers are much more down-to-earth than I envisioned a lot of them to be and so many of them are very willing to go out of their way to explain things when we have questions.
