It’s currently the night of July 11 as I’m writing this!
Today I woke up with some true fire in my gut. I slept for seven hours! Seven!!! I RAN to C4C with genuine enthusiasm. I’m hungry! And I’m loving this! This buffet is great! (My stomach says otherwise…)
I went on a bit of a tangent there, but it sets a precedent for how glorious this experience has been. I’ve loved almost every lecture so far, and if I had to pick a top three so far, it would be lectures on Special/General Relativity, Spherical Trigonometry, and today’s guest lecture on the history of women in astronautics, presented by Dr. Nicole Zellner from Albion College!
Dr. Zellner’s academic background is also extremely interesting and inspirational too, so much so that the QnA group I was in talked with her for two hours straight! This is what I personally love about meeting new people, each person’s story is completely different than the previous one.
In relation to that, every person here is a wonder in its own right! I’ve never been crammed in a room with so many individually brilliant people before, but it’s great! Everyone’s grown with each other, and I’ve felt that effect tenfold.
This wouldn’t be a complete experience without the downs, though. I can admit that I’m often more lost than I am truly understanding the topic, but it doesn’t matter! I know my strengths, and I know that I work hard. And everyone empowers everyone.
My favorite quote related to this statement is a random sentence I caught from Dr. Dubson in one of his lectures, where he noted that the process of learning is a constant uphill battle and a struggle, but this struggle creates growth. I’m not worried! I’m thoroughly enjoying this!
I’ll show you one of my worst ever downs, though:
About me: Hello! My name is Andrés and I’m from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I LOVE eating, soccer (specifically its tactics), my island’s countryside, and sharing my ideas through public speaking and debates, and I plan on studying physics in the near future. This institution did NOT lie when they said that this would be the experience of a lifetime, because it truly is, and I’m grateful for all of the personal connections I’ve made with my friends, supervisors, and everyone else involved.
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SSP International is a nonprofit offering inspiring science immersion experiences. Founded in 1959, its mission is to provide opportunities to accelerate learning, doing and belonging in science. SSP International’s flagship program is Summer Science Program, a leading education experience for exceptional high school students in astrophysics, biochemistry, genomics and more.
