Week 5

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Friday, July 12, 2013

By:

Dayton Syme

It has been very fun to meet and talk with all of the interns around the Department of Education. On Thursday, there was a 21+ intern social. We did what many people do in DC after work – we went to happy hour. I met about 20 interns from different departments and background. However, if someone needed to guess, a majority of people were either from Ohio or Virginia. At the very least, everyone loved what was done so much, that there is a push from people to do it again before the end of the month. I am not opposed to that in the very least.

Work at the ED has gotten more eventful. I have planned a meeting and set up about eight others for Camsie. I spoke with a fellow intern about tone of voice when communicating to outside entities connected with the Department of Education. I received some sage advice that there is no need to feel bad about putting someone off or having to reschedule. That may seem matter-of-fact, but being in that situation can be awkward.

Another experience I’ll never forget was when I had fill in at a meeting for my boss. It gave me some good in-the-field experience, and I can say I’ve asked a company’s president questions. That’s a first.

One of the most astounding things that I got to do this week was go to NASA Goddard Space and Flight Center. We got to tour all of these places that few people get to see. We looked into the cleanroom in which they built the Hubble Telescope and are now building the James Webb Telescope. We went inside of a giant centrifuge where they place satellites to test their strength against large accelerations. Near the centrifuge was the Wide-Field Camera 2 of the Hubble telescope that operated for 15 years, before being replaced in the 2002 service repair mission.

The Department of Education will be having a few cool events later but I would prefer to wait until they come and go before I start writing about them. In the meantime, it’s going to be a crazy next couple of weeks.

Dayton Syme