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AAS - 2017

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 2016 and 2017 NITARP teams attended the 2017 January AAS meeting in Dallas, TX. The 2016 class was presenting results and the 2017 class was starting up. We had many alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 50 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:


Quotes

  • [student:] I have always known that I wanted to go into astronomy or a surrounding field and this experience has only completed it. Before, I did not know the process that astronomers take, only the outcome, and now that I see all the devotion needed, it can only make me more determined to pursue this career.
  • The NITARP model of mentorship deserves to be replicated by other programs and agencies.
  • [student:] My goal for my future career was to most likely become a doctor or biologist but now because of NITARP, I have been motivated to delve deeper and look for an area of astronomy to pursue.
  • [student:] I did not anticipate having to speak with and meet so many new people but that was fine. I did not expect to learn so much and get so interested at the actual AAS meeting.
  • In our research course at school, I am pushing to change some of the parts of it that need updating and that don’t really reflect the reality of scientific work. For instance, assembling a complete research proposal, which now seems so obvious, was not a requirement at school. I am also planning on providing students with opportunities to conduct research where they do not need to collect their own data. Why not? There’s so much already out there.

AAS - 2017