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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 most surprising part of this experience was how easily everyone connected with each other. We are all different, but we somehow were able to become good friends and team members in a short amount of time. This same connection happened between the students and the teachers. We did not view them as teachers, but rather friends that we can trust and exchange help with.
  • [student: This experience] made me love the subject more than I ever thought I would have.
  • [student:] I was least surprised at the amount of trial and error and patience that was required as we began to delve into our data. It’s most definitely not a quick process!
  • There were huge benefits to working together in person for a week! We got to know each other, which is key to working long distance, especially with a large and diverse group. And before the trip, the group wasn’t really a “group” yet. Now we’ve all worked side-by-side, had discussions, debates, taught each other and learned from each other. I have high hopes for our continued work this summer and fall.
  • [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.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2016 - HIPS AGN