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Summer Visit - 2025 - HIPS-AGaiN

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 HIPS-AGaiN team came to visit in July 2025. The 4 core team educators attended, plus 6 students.

Quotes

  • [Real astronomy is] Pursuing curiosity doggedly through the pit of despair... persisting through confusion and frustration... never surrender, never give up... this is a much larger part of being successful as a researcher than I could have ever imagined before the NITARP experience. It is a true and powerful gift and it informs nearly every lesson and interaction with my students. For those that are interested in pursuing a path into STEM careers, it allows me to be so much more supportive of their exploration and consideration of what a career in STEM will require. For my students that make the choice to pursue STEM careers, I can see that they are far more likely to persist in the pursuit through undergrad and graduate school.
  • I was blown away by the scale and extent of what astronomers do as part of their research. The amount of data is mind-blowing and the amount of work that astronomers have to do to get the data that they need out of all of this data is just crazy. There are so many things to discover in the data, but you really need to have a plan if you want to discover anything.
  • [student:] I knew going into the project that it involved aspects of science that I intensely enjoyed, and it did not disappoint in the slightest.
  • My favorite thing was diving deeper into our research topic, which led me to think deeply about the fate of our universe. I also felt like I got to learn more about how galaxies evolve and form as well as the significance of black holes as “seeds.” Conversations like these were equal parts fun and empowering!
  • [student:] The most surprising thing I learned is how much we either don't know or are unsure about. During school, you really only learn about stuff that is concrete and entirely known, or at least almost entirely known.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2025 - HIPS-AGaiN