A Busy Week

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Monday, June 17, 2019

By:

Amber Sammons

From start to finish, this week has been a wild one. This week at AAPT, I’ve been helping Rebecca to finalize everything for the conference in Phoenix. I’m currently writing this from Phoenix, so as of now, everything is running smoothly. I’m really excited to get to be here as the representative for the American Association of Physics Teachers at the STEM+C workshop, and I’m really grateful that I’ll get a chance to learn this coding language/program while I’m here. I hope that I’ll be able to represent the organization well! 

This week I also started to get in on helping a program that AAPT is working on that’s goal is to help with teacher retention for those underrepresented in the physics community. This project was started by Rebecca, Kyrstina (the AAPT intern from last year), and the Master Teacher Leaders from the 2018 cohort. I’m working to help create some posters and information on the initiative so that we can recruit mentors and mentees into the program and work to help grow a welcoming community of those underrepresented teachers of physics. I’m so excited to get to be a part of this, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

This week was also super fun for all of the social things we got to do. Wednesday, I went out to lunch with Jack Hehn, who is an AAPT fellow and was the one who started this internship program. He is so amazing, and I love getting to talk to him every day and learn from him. At lunch, we talked a lot about both of our journeys to our current points and hearing all that he’s done has just continued to solidify my belief that I’m on the right path for me. Thursday, I went to lunch again with Jack, but this time, we were joined by Susan and Gary White. Both of these people are legends in the American Center for Physics. Gary is a former director of SPS and is the current editor ofThe Physics Teacher. Susan is the Assistant Director of the Statistical Research Center in AIP. I was really excited to get the chance to talk with her about the reports that she has done on high school physics teachers and the state of physics teaching at the high school level. I’m hoping to have better questions prepared for the next time we meet up, because I was a bit overwhelmed getting to meet them that I forgot all that I wanted to ask. That evening, we went on the Odyssey Cruise. It was a blast! The food was amazing, and it was just so much fun getting to dance and hang out with everyone. I was at the same table as the CEO of AIP, which I don’t think many people can say.

Saturday was an especially eventful day. All week, one of the things that I had been working on was helping Jack to prepare for the National Orchestral Institute and Festival that all of the interns would be attending. I was helping to make sure that transportation, food, and where we would be meeting were all properly arranged. I wanted to get there earlier than everybody on Saturday to make sure everything was good to go, so I took the Metro alone. While on the Metro, a group of kids came by and stole my wallet, with everything in it. Needless to say, that made for a hectic night. I still really wanted to go to the concert, so I was given a ride there by a policewoman after they had taken my statement. I was worried that going to a concert so soon after something like that happened would be too much for me, but it wasn’t. Everybody was so nice. Jack, Brad, and all of the interns were just so kind and supportive of me and my struggles. I’m so glad that I get to be a part of this internship and be with such kind, understanding people, that are also so funny and smart.  

Amber Sammons