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AAS - 2014

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. NITARP educators attend an AAS first to meet their team, then they go home and work remotely for much of the year, and then attend an AAS to present their results.  At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The 2013 and 2014 NITARP teams attended the 2014 January AAS meeting in National Harbor, MD (outside of Washington, DC). The 2013 class was presenting results and the 2014 class was starting up. We had a lot of alumni raise their own money to come back as well. We sent about 75 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. One of our participants, Peggy Piper, participated in a Congressional briefing on Thursday! All the posters we presented are linked from the team's pages below, except for HG-WELS and SIRXS, because they are the two new teams.

Quotes

  • I was much more comfortable approaching people presenting their posters. Last year I felt like I was in way over my head. This year I felt like I fit in just fine, I knew so much more and had the confidence to speak freely about what I didn’t understand. I realized that no one understands all of it, but becoming an expert at one thing gives you the confidence and motivation to learn more.
  • A few different people asked if we were going to publish our results which I thought was a pretty big compliment -- and I mentioned it to our scientist.
  • [student:] The room was filled with a collaborative attitude, and it was very interesting to simply observe.
  • Thanks again for this amazing opportunity. I really hope it can continues even in light of the difficult financial times. It would be a terrible loss if it went away because it feels a very specific niche that is not met by any other program I have seen.
  • [student:] At the conference, I learned astronomers were much more approachable than I had expected. I anticipated them to be cold and condensing [condescending] towards me since I am only in high school, yet everyone I interacted with was friendly and welcoming. I really enjoyed the experience because [..] I really think it opened my eyes to the “adult” world. The entire program helped [me] to grow as a person and come to learn more about myself and what I want to do as an occupation. I am very fortunate for this opportunity and I hope everyone continues to learn and grow from this incredible experience.

Related Teams

AAS - 2014