My name is Maia Chandler and I am the AAPT/SOCK Intern for Summer 2024. I am a rising senior at Swarthmore College pursuing a major in biophysics and a minor in educational studies. Outside of class, I run circus club, am a teaching assistant for physics classes, and am helping build my school’s natural history collections. I believe people are inherently fascinated by science and that childlike wonder and curiosity should be nurtured. In my work, I hope to convey that science matters because it teaches us about the connections between ourselves, and the living and nonliving world around us and beyond us. As one of my friends says, the strings of everybody's gravity touch each other always.

I hope to pursue a graduate degree and a career in science communication and am very excited to dive into science outreach and public education this summer. I want to make scientific research appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds, and assure young students that there is a place for them in these fields.