Author Archives: Christian Zavisca

Sarah Golobish ’20: Energy Vision

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Name: Sarah Golobish
Class Year: 2020
Major: Political Science
Hometown: Princeton, N.J.

Internship Organization: Energy Vision
Job Title: Summer Associate
Location: New York City

At Energy Vision, Sarah is conducting research on sustainability within the heavy-duty trucking industry.

What’s happening at your internship?

Energy Vision is a New York-based national environmental nonprofit that advocates for sustainability in the transportation sector. On a day-to-day basis this translates to research, outreach, and a variety of special educational initiatives. Throughout my time there I’ve gotten to attend meetings, hearings and help with a few research projects. My main research focus has been looking into the sustainability of the largest heavy-duty truck fleets in America. Through my work, I’ve found out a great deal about this often-overlooked industry and how efforts to “go green” are hardly as simple as they seem. Given that I want to go into environmental nonprofit work after graduation, the summer as a whole has been an incredibly valuable learning opportunity.

Sarah and Energy Vision founder and trustee Joanna Underwood ’62.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I feel that I work best in environments where I am able to put my odd mix of interests to work and finding that can be hard as a political science major and environmental studies/computational methods minor. However, research and advocacy around clean energy fits perfectly into that niche and has a positive impact on the world. Energy Vision’s work stood out to me as exactly this sort of advocacy that would give me a chance to apply what I’ve learned in my courses — and to practice what I hope to do post-graduation.

Was there anything special about how you found this internship?

I first heard about Energy Vision in a 360° Course Cluster that I took my sophomore year when the organization’s president (a Haverford alumnus) came and spoke about anaerobic digestion and the work that Energy Vision does. The whole concept of creating energy from waste was new to me and turned out to be an interesting portion of what we studied. The work I did in those courses helped me focus in on my passion for environmental advocacy and, funnily enough, taught me the skills that I’m putting to use this summer!

Energy Vision’s relationship to Bryn Mawr is also special in that its founder is a BMC alumna. Joanna Underwood ’62 founded the nonprofit in 2007 and has worked with many Bi-Co alumni and students in the past 12 years. Through this close relationship, EV has been able to offer an internship to a current BMC student for the past few summers.

I had the opportunity to meet Johanna at the opening of NYC’s first fueling station to exclusively offer renewable natural gas (RNG). Over the past 10 years, Energy Vision has helped advocate for this station and ones just like it across the US that provide RNG – a cleaner, low-carbon alternative to diesel.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

It has been incredibly rewarding to work on an issue as important as climate change at a time when it seems like there isn’t much we as individuals can do to help. There is no single solution to a problem like this, but organizations like Energy Vision are looking at issues of sustainability holistically and pushing for strategies that can help to make a real impact right away. It has been wonderful to work with people who are just as passionate about the intricacies of it all and who are working to make positive change. This summer’s internship at Energy Vision has allowed me to dive into some very complicated questions around an issue I care deeply about and has pushed me to develop skills that I know will be crucial in my life after graduation.

Samantha Forestier ’20: Breakthrough Atlanta

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Name: Samantha Forestier
Class Year: 2020
Major: Biology
Hometown: Malden, Mass.

Internship Organization: Breakthrough Atlanta
Job Title: Teaching Fellow
Location: Atlanta

It has been an exciting summer teaching! Breakthrough Atlanta goes above and beyond in preparing students for college. The mission of Breakthrough Atlanta is to close the opportunity gap in education and make college a goal for all of its participants. In order to achieve this goal, they host summer classes and enrichment activities for middle- and high-school students to prevent summer learning loss and to prepare them for the upcoming school year.

I have been working with a group of 30 8th grade students. I teach them physical science for two periods in the morning. Later in the afternoon we teach public speaking, an elective, STEM clinic and other enrichment activities. My self-designed elective is called “Lab Rats,” where the students get to participate in experiments and have a hands-on approach to science. During my downtime I collaborate with the other science teachers to create lesson plans that align with Georgia’s learning standards and I meet with my instructional coach to review observation notes. Building relationships between students and families has been essential through the program as there are parent conferences and student-led meetings throughout the summer. Relationship building is also essential in creating a positive classroom culture and mutual respect. I have learned so much through this experience and I’m grateful to be working towards an important mission.

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I applied for this internship because I love working with children. I’m a pre-med, biology student and I plan on entering a career in pediatric medicine. I have gotten some experience working with toddlers and I was interested in working with some different age groups. I wanted to try something different this summer and teaching has always interested me. The internship was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I have had an amazing experience so far.

My favorite part of the internship has been the relationships I have been able to form with the students and with the other teaching fellows. I was originally nervous about being able to get to know my students while teaching them physics. It took a little while for my class to get used to my personality and my teaching style, but after a week I could really see a shift in attitude. I love being able to eat lunch with the students and get to learn more about their life and interests outside of the classroom. I look forward to seeing my students as they walk up the bridge in the morning and I enjoy the conversations we get to share.

The other teaching fellows have been an amazing support through this entire process. Many of them have had prior teaching experience and they are always quick to share tips and advice. They are always there to give me a pep-talk after a bad lesson or to offer support in lesson planning. It’s an amazing experience that all of these different college students are able to come together to help close the opportunity gap.

Three Adjectives: Collaborative, motivated, empowered
Three Nouns: Relationships, opportunity, potential

Kylah Fanning ’20: Public Events Intern, The Franklin Institute

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Name: Kylah Fanning
Class Year: 2020
Major: Linguistics (Education minor)
Hometown: Westminster, M.D.

Internship Organization: The Franklin Institute
Job Title: Public Events Intern
Location: Philadelphia

If you had told me in February that I would be spending my summer experimenting with the iridescence of bubbles, exploring 3-D augmented reality renderings of planets and moons in our solar system, and helping kids turn balloons and film canisters into rockets, I wouldn’t have believed you. I would have thought I had just heard the description of the coolest job in the world, though.

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My fellow intern, Naomi, and I wear bike helmets fitted and given away by a Franklin Institute partner to all June Community Night visitors.

I have been incredibly lucky to spend the summer as the Public Events Intern at The Franklin Institute. When I found this internship, while scrolling through the Career and Civic Engagement Center’s internship partners, I was delighted. I had loved visiting science museums growing up, and to share that experience with the thousands of visitors for whom The Franklin Institute Public Events team plans events was an exciting prospect.

As an Education minor at Bryn Mawr, the internship has allowed me to explore a realm of the field of education outside of the classroom setting. In fact, “inspire[ing] a passion for learning about science and technology” is the central mission of The Franklin Institute, and that spirit is baked into everything I do at my internship. For every event, we focus on highlighting certain aspects of the museum — the planetarium and astronomy wing during monthly Night Skies events, for example, or the many family-friendly exhibits of the museum during free, monthly Community Nights. We do this by coordinating extensive teams of volunteers and partner organizations to present event-theme-related activities. This summer, the museum has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and I have gotten to reach out to partners who have brought moon-landing-themed activities to events, coordinate schedules for our volunteers and staff during the Institute’s July Community Night, and taught kids visiting the museum how to make and launch rockets from common household items.

The breadth of responsibilities that I have keeps me on my toes, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Somewhat to my surprise, interning at the museum has opened up the world of informal learning to me as a potential career path. I have immensely enjoyed balancing behind-the-scenes work with interacting with guests during events. It turns out I love the design and experimentation that goes into programming as much as that which goes into a good hands-on science demonstration.

Creating a colorful reaction at the Pride Science After Hours event.

Creating a colorful reaction at the Pride Science After Hours event.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of my internship experience has been sharing a love for science learning not only with kids, but with adults as well. The excitement about science is infectious, in the office, and on the museum floor. I love calling adults over to my table when I am showcasing the augmented reality planets — I have something really cool to show you, I say, and watch as they pick up a tablet to appease my request. I hold my breath until the camera focuses on a 2D picture of a planet — maybe, let’s say Mars. And then, just as the image seems to freeze, the 3D, rotating rendering pops up on screen. Without fail, their face breaks into an expression of joy, and wonder at the image on screen, which they can zoom in on, and rotate with their finger, to explore the surface of another world, millions of miles away, in more detail than they likely ever imagined. For a moment, I pause to enjoy our mutual awe at their ability to experience this exploration. Then I ask them if they would like to go back in time, because we can use a feature to see what Mars looked like when it had liquid water. And this time they agree eagerly.

It has been a joy to explore science education through the crafting of immersive, community-oriented public events. Anyone who is interested in checking out events like the ones I have helped prepare this summer should explore The Franklin Institute’s Events and Programs. Bryn Mawr students can discover more amazing internship opportunities through the Career & Civic Engagement Center’s Internship Partners.

Testing circuit boards after soldering them to repair disconnected wires. The circuit boards are used during events like Community Night at interactive, create-your-own-circuit stations.

Testing circuit boards after soldering them to repair disconnected wires. The circuit boards are used during events like Community Night at interactive, create-your-own-circuit stations.

Nora Cahill ’21: Institute for Research on Poverty, UW-Madison

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Name: Nora Cahill
Class Year: 2021
Major: Economics/Math minor
Hometown: Madison, Wisc.

Internship Organization: Institute for Research on Poverty, with Tim Smeeding, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs
Job Title: Project Assistant
Location: Madison, Wis.

What’s happening at your internship?

My boss, Tim Smeeding, is writing a book on economic inequality, different ways to measure it, and potential policy solutions for the financial problems faced by hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. Tim has spent his career studying, writing about, and influencing policy about economic inequality. This book will specifically focus on the pros and cons of different datasets and measures of well-being, issues that are keeping American society highly unequal, and how to improve our measurement in the future.

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Why did you apply for this internship?

I’m really interested in economic inequality and how it relates to policy, and Tim’s work is exactly up that alley. This internship seemed like a great way to gain some practical experience with research and analysis, while become more familiar with research that’s already been done on subjects related to economic inequality. Now, at the end of the summer, I can say that it’s turned out to be a great step towards my goals!

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part of this internship is how open-ended it is. Tim gives me a project every week, and I work on it on my own, going back to him if I have questions or have something to show him. Some weeks I’m looking at the connections between family wealth and education, some weeks I’m sifting through data to find important trends in consumer debt. I get to go down a lot of rabbit holes — if I think something is interesting and relevant, I’m always free to include it in my report!

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

I’m gaining a lot of hard research skills — like finding the papers that are most relevant to whatever I’m working on; learning R, a coding language used in data analysis; and creating graphics that help illustrate whatever I’m writing. These skills will help me when I’m doing research in the future — these are tools that economists use every day to make their work better. More broadly, I’m practicing working independently and using what I already know about economics to inform my work. These are skills that I’ll bring to whatever I do next, both during and after college.

Jamila Ghazi ’20: BNP Paribas

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Name: Jamila Ghazi
Class Year: 2020
Majors: Economics and Political Science
Hometown: Rabat, Morocco
Internship Organization: BNP Paribas
Job Title: Assets and Liabilities Management and Treasury Summer Analyst
Location: New York City
jams

Jamila Ghazi ’20 with BNP Paribas ALMT CUSO IHC Treasurer Kenneth McMullen.

My penultimate year at Bryn Mawr College culminated in an internship offer from BNP Paribas’s Assets and Liabilities Management and Treasury team, in New York City. Currently, the summer analyst program mentors over a hundred interns that stormed the bank with their energy and eagerness to grow and learn over the course of 10 weeks. This selective program is crucial to the recruiting process of the bank, to attract and train young talent around the world. It is a great opportunity for the interns to get intensive exposure to the field, and gain a better understanding of the BNP Paribas culture, before committing to a full-time position.

Being a woman in finance is not unintimidating. Having to enter the field from an unconventional liberal arts background is not an easy sell, either, with the distribution requirements, the Socratic method of teaching, liberal arts combine academic rigor with work ethics, diversity of perspective and depth of analysis.

My experience at BNP Paribas demonstrated that the liberal arts’ interdisciplinary approach, a well-rounded education and good communication skills go a long way in the workplace, enabling one to learn and thrive in any field. Likewise, BNP Paribas’ campus recruitment reiterates the commitment to diversity through their interest in liberal arts students. Zachary Graham, a member of the campus recruiting team, states: “We need students from all types of backgrounds, all types of studies, and all types of schools. BNP Paribas has a school-agnostic approach for its campus recruiting strategy because we believe that our success is determined on our ability to recruit, hire, and retain a diverse candidate pool. We need BNP Paribas interns who can be innovative, who can lead change, and who come up with unique solutions to the very complicated problems of our clients.”

At BNP Paribas, I have become part of a solid and longstanding global bank, with values and a future vision aligned with mine. At ALMT specifically, I was welcomed warmly, mentored, and encouraged to take ownership of certain key projects. Given the transversal nature of the ALMT activity, which necessitates working with various teams, I was able to contribute to other ALMT teams across the region. This has reshaped my understanding of the business and the organization of the bank to a large extent, thus giving me the confidence to learn from people around me, and inquire about future steps to acquire more expertise.

My views on finance, informed by the clichés of the industry, being highly competitive, solely project driven, and very exclusive, have been challenged at BNP Paribas. Personally, I thrive in fast-paced environments that enhance interdependence, multitasking, corporate social responsibility and innovation, without compromising a healthy work-life balance. I was positively surprised this summer, and able to foresee a future for myself in finance. Moving forward, my BNP Paribas experience has set the bar high for expectations from the workplace. This summer has opened my eyes to the possibility of a positive, meaningful and influential career in finance that transcends the stereotypical Wall Street experience.

In light of my experience, my advice to Bryn Mawr students and alumnae alike is the following:

Find a place that continues to empower you, like Bryn Mawr does. Acknowledge the great energy you have as a BMC alumna. Use your proud and loud voice, and your confidence, even if your field may be far behind in recognizing women’s achievements. Where you start your career matters, who you work with matters, and the values of the company matter. So, choose carefully, choose what you deserve. Hold the Bryn Mawr mission high, and renew your commitment to women’s empowerment, wherever you go.

Anassa Kata!

Laya Paladugu ’21: Software Development Intern, Putnam Investments

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Name: Laya Paladugu
Class Year: 2021
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Edison, N.J.

Internship Organization: Putnam Investments
Job Title: Software Development Intern
Location: Boston

boston

What’s happening at your internship?

As a software development intern in a finance company, I work on creating platforms that help analysts work more efficiently. I work with the Global Asset Acquisition/Investments team to develop a website using Angular and Python that displays all their data in an accessible format. So far, I have made several UI changes across the platform that will help users have a better experience when using the platform. My seven tech co-interns and I have also gone through many learning sessions to understand the financial aspect of the company as well. This has helped us get a better understanding of what role our work in playing in the bigger picture.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because I wanted to use the knowledge I gained in a classroom setting in a real work environment. This opportunity is a great way for me to grow my skillset and learn how to work in a professional company. I wanted to be a part of something that would challenge me and help me grow as a developer and student. I was also interested in exploring the intersection between Computer Science and Finance.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part of this internship has been all the people I have met because of it. Although we are interns, we have opportunities to meet many significant people in the company who have shared their stories with us and always offer to give us help and advice. I also work with seven other interns who are all intelligent and friendly. From helping each other code to lunches by the harbor, everyone is very supportive of each other. It is really nice getting to know a diverse group of people who all ended up in the same position. Learning from people who bring different experiences is very beneficial and fun because we get to share our knowledge and help each other grow.

Living in a new city? What has that experience been like for you?

This is my first time living in Boston and it has been an amazing experience. I have met so many great people who make me feel comfortable and at home. I have a lot of fun on the weekends exploring the museums, parks and many other tourist attractions in Boston. My favorite part is all the delicious food I get to enjoy. There is always something to do so I never get bored. Living by myself, I also have learned a lot of practical life skills that I can carry with me wherever I go. I am grateful for this opportunity because I got to experience many firsts this summer.

boston

Saumyaa Mehra ’21: Energy Office, Philadelphia City Government

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Name: Saumyaa Mehra
Class Year: 2021
Major: Mathematics
Hometown: Delhi, India

Internship Organization: Energy Office, Philadelphia City Government
Job Title: Summer Research Intern
Location: Philadelphia

I’ve always been somewhat of a math geek, and really wanted to understand how math and data are used to solve real-world questions. When I got a taste of it in Professor Victor Donnay’s Differential Equations class while using equations to solve sustainability related questions, I approached him to explore the application of math to sustainability more extensively. He told me about the various projects that the Philadelphia city government is doing to work toward cleaner energy sources, and this opportunity immediately caught my interest.

At the Energy Office, I am working as a summer research intern on the Indego Philadelphia Bike Share program. The program is a part of the Municipal Energy Master Plan, which lays out a roadmap of how we could reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. The goal of my project is to calculate the reductions in carbon footprint when people switch to bike-share for travel in place of public and private transport.

As of now, I spend most of my days working with data and my project-head on the next steps to calculate the carbon emissions. The project just kickstarted and I have used some old data to calculate the distance covered by the bikes from 2016-2019 given latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates. Now, after using data from surveys on the shift in mode of transport, I am calculating the associated carbon emission savings. We’re also working on figuring out strategies such as, ways to make bike share more accessible to low-income communities, provide access to urban biking and new-rider lessons to ensure success of the program. And oh, at times, we also collectively treat ourselves to a batch of iced coffees to get those credits on Ritual 😉

Overall, it’s a lot of fun because I am getting a chance to really work on my analysis and excel skills, ask the right questions given a certain research area, and utilize data sets appropriately to help me answer those questions. I am also learning how to network with people and put myself out there in an office environment.

As far as living in a new city goes, living in a city even if it is just 15 miles away from where you’ve spent (and slogged) the last two years is a whole new adventure. While I wouldn’t necessarily call Philadelphia a “new” city for me given its proximity to Bryn Mawr, visiting the city during the cold winter months in the middle of the semester for some dim-sums, as compared to living here during the summer and spending Sunday afternoons in Rittenhouse Square, are completely different experiences. While living in Philadelphia on my own has been a slight challenge, it’s been nothing short of great. The feeling was a lot more unsettling, unfamiliar and scary at first, but as soon as I learned to get comfortable in my own presence, manage money well, started cooking as a way to de-stress and bond with my roommates, summer in the city has started to look wonderful.

Alyssa Lopez ’20: Inclusive Action for the City

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Name: Alyssa Lopez
Class Year: 2020
Major: Growth & Structure of Cities and Spanish
Hometown: Los Angeles

Internship Organization: Inclusive Action for the City
Job Title: Policy and Economic Development Intern
Location: Los Angeles

What’s happening at your internship?

It varies! I am so grateful to not have jumped into a super structured internship placement because I am learning so much on the go and am constantly stimulated. About a month ago, Inclusive Action for the City underwent a name change (formerly Leadership for Urban Renewal), which was announced at our annual event (incredibly well attended by more than 300 people), while the team graciously answered around 500 of my burning questions and curiosities. I am primarily working on a couple ongoing research projects ranging from the costs of displacement/relocation (inclusive of eviction in some cases) for individuals in Los Angeles to investigating municipal initiatives to repurpose and revitalize urban vacant land across the country. The preliminary research that I am participating in is in collaboration with a couple other team members and will lead to publications on IAC’s Research Blog and other forms of long-term tactical research. The research that IAC conducts then informs their programming strategies and shapes the implementation of policy initiatives across multiple city-relate topic areas.
I am also helping out with some data collection and streamlining for Inclusive Action’s micro-loan program, Semi’a Fund. Semi’a aims to provide short-term healthy loans for individuals that are business owners and are likely to be at risk of predatory lending and are often not able to borrow through traditional means. The streamlining of this data will help better organize and prepare for more clients in the future and provides a structured representation often necessary for funding purposes/opportunities.

Although I get learn client stories and backgrounds through the Semi’a data, I am glad to say that I also have the opportunity to directly engage with the communities that Inclusive Action does this work for. Through my support of COMPRA (our healthy produce delivery service), I take clients’ orders and am able to hear out their concerns to in an effort to improve our service. I have recently also participated in our work with Best Start, an initiative that focuses on the bettering the lives of children (0-5 years old) in historically disenfranchised communities. I was able to participate a couple weeks ago by facilitating a parent conversation regarding the necessary educational tools/knowledge children need before entering formal education — it was challenging but also a lot of fun to learn so much from complete strangers!

Why did you apply for this internship?

Having previous experience interning within the nonprofit sector in L.A. and during the school year in Philadelphia, I was fairly confident of wanting to get some more hands-on work with a nonprofit this summer before entering my senior year. I had learned of Inclusive Action a couple years ago and was able to attend their annual event plus2, which is a convening of professionals, residents, and educators that work to better urban communities. This experience is one that had informed and guided my academic research and personal interests over the past year — so I thought it would be a great idea to work with the group of people that that pulls this and so much other work together. Inclusive Action, through economic development and community engagement, has actively worked to shape and better low-income communities of color across Los Angeles for the past 10 years. I wanted to support their projects to the best of my ability, but I mainly wanted to learn about what is missing in this field: what is the work that could get done if there were unlimited resources at Inclusive Action? Apart from the collaboration that IAC foments, what avenues of collaborative work should be present in cities? What figures of urban leadership are we missing? What existing work should be elevated?

These questions and many others are ones I get to participate in discussions about on the daily, and there is actual real work that the team at IAC leads to address these cornerstones of urban life, every day! I am incredibly grateful that I am able to marry my academic passions with my experience living in Los Angeles and nerd out about urban planning with my coworkers on the daily!

Was this internship what you expected it to be?

No … it is so much more! I was prepared to learn and be challenged and engage in mindful moments, but the past few months at Inclusive Action have been so stimulating and spurred motivation to think about my future in this sector and the many different paths that have led people to this work. I think because I have had a couple different internship placements in the past — I am in the habit of reflecting on my role within the organization that is guiding me. At Inclusive Action I feel comfortable sharing my concerns and recommendations on how to shape the work I am doing — the welcoming atmosphere and leadership has elevated the confidence I have with the work I produce and contributes to learning experience/process overall. I am extremely grateful to work with people that are very self-aware and that constantly question, in very thoughtful ways, how they are doing the work and how they can further be engaged.

 

Jasmine Bao ’22: LITS Digital Technology Intern

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Name: Jasmine Bao
Class Year: 2022
Major: Not declared
Hometown: Basking Ridge, N.J.

Internship Organization: LITS
Job Title: LITS Digital Technology Intern
Location: Bryn Mawr College

The LITS Digital Technology Interns are split into two projects: the Great Law Project and the Palumbo Project. I am part of the Palumbo Project (also known as the Factbook Project) named after our “client” Lindsey Palumbo of the Office of Institutional Research along with another fellow LITS intern. My internship involves working closely with Bryn Mawr College’s historical factbooks. The factbooks contain valuable data and facts about the college and they date as far back as 1983 and the latest being 2003. However, there is only one physical copy per year, meaning that if anything should happen to these copies, the information in the factbooks would be gone forever. It is my job and goal as an intern to digitalize these factbooks so the information can be immortalized in the digital age and, ultimately, create a public database containing the data so the Bryn Mawr community can access and learn about the college’s history.

Being a Bryn Mawr student, of course I got excited when I saw that the college’s LITS offered an internship over the summer! Although I do not plan on pursuing or majoring in computer science or technology-centered fields, I still recognize the importance of technology and digital skills in today’s increasingly technology-dependent world. I applied for this internship because I thought it would be a good opportunity to contribute to the Bryn Mawr community, connect with other interns, build networks, learn various technology skills, and experience what it is like to be in an internship and a work-like environment.

My favorite part of this internship has definitely been connecting with my fellow interns. Every person in this internship is a passionate, kind member of the Bryn Mawr community who genuinely loves giving their knowledge, time, and effort to help others. I bonded with my coworker, Tanjuma, quickly by working closely together on the Factbook Project as well as finding out we have common interests such as drawing, watching Netflix, etc. I also became good friends with Vinty. Although Vinty is a member of the Great Law Project, the fact that we were both born in China and spoke Chinese brought us really close to each other. We even visited Philly to watch Fourth of July fireworks together (see photo)!

Because the Factbook Project is all about converting and formatting something physical into a digital form, I have become quite familiar with the scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) functions in Adobe, as well as inputting data into Excel. In almost every workplace, knowing how to extract and manipulate data is either very helpful or crucial. I encourage everyone, no matter if they are pursuing a technology-related field or not, to become familiar with data collection and editing. I am lucky and grateful that I have my colleagues here at LITS to help me when I run into trouble, so finding a reliable mentor when it comes to learning something can make all the difference!

fourth of july

Tori Dang ’20: Physics Research Assistant, Colorado State

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Name: Tori Dang
Class Year: 2020
Major: Physics and Italian
Hometown: Beijing, China

Internship Organization: Colorado State University
Job Title: Research Assistant
Location: Fort Collins, Colo.

What’s happening at your internship?

I am working with Professor Kristen Buchanan in the department of physics at CSU to learn more about magnetorhetorical elastomers (MREs). MREs are a class of solids that consist of non-magnetic matric and embedded micro- or nano-sized ferromagnetic particles. They have tunable magnetic properties and as a result are promising candidates for magnetic devices. More specifically, this summer I am doing micro-magnetic simulations to complement the experimental results that were obtained at Bryn Mawr. We are trying to use theoretical model to explain what we see in the experimental characterization. This is done by the micro-magnetic simulation software Mumax-3, a model built in python and an energy minimization program written in MATLAB.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I was already working with Professor May Cheng on micro-magnetism at Bryn Mawr, and Professor Cheng has collaborative projects with Professor Buchanan, which is how I was introduced to this opportunity. I decided to come because I knew this research is directly related to what I’ve learned at Bryn Mawr and I could readily apply my knowledge to the project while learning something new. I actually worked here as a research assistant last summer as well, except that last summer I worked on experimental techniques such as lithography and magneto-sputtering.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part of the internship is having to learn programming. I don’t particularly like programming, yet as a physics major, I realized that this is an essential skill to have. However I have never really taken a computing course because there was always something else that interested me more. I knew I had to introduce myself to programming at some point during my academic career, as a result I am glad that it happened in the summer, when I don’t have much distraction and can focus on learning and understanding, rather than cramming everything in.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

While I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn programming this summer, it has also been a great challenge for me. For example, one of my tasks was to build a model of the sample in Python. Due to my lack of experience in computing, I had no idea how to put my thoughts into actual codes in the beginning, which was very frustrating.