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Summer Visit - 2022 - SNAG490

The summer visit to Caltech is 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 SNAG490 team came to visit in June-July 2022. The 5 core team educators attended, plus 5 students.


Quotes

  • [student:] The most surprising thing I did was enjoy myself. I didn't expect to feel happy while working (that sounds bad), but I expected to just be really stressed. It was stressful, but also extremely rewarding. On the last day I still felt like I had energy left for a couple more in-person all-day work days.
  • [student:] I was told it's okay to fail, as most or all of learning is failing and accepting help from others, which I used to not believe entirely but this experience was definitely impactful.
  • [student:] I feel stupid a lot of the time when doing this work and it felt reassuring to hear Luisa say that it's okay.
  • [student:] Real astronomy is having confidence in the steps you took and the work you achieved using those steps but also being willing to receive feedback and critism. It's also curiosity.
  • [student:] The best thing about this trip was getting the opportunity to experience what actual astronomy is, and participate in real science. I love that I get to continue this research and find things that no one has before.

Summer Visit - 2022 - SNAG490