Describe what you did during your internship:

During my internship I planned and led half of the Grout Museum’s “I Need Space!” camp as well as the entirety of the “Rockets, Cars, and Planes, Oh My!” camp. I assisted in supervising the other week-long and day-long camps of the summer. I also helped run the planetarium as well as presented science demonstrations. Most of my work involved supervising children and encouraging them to engage in the material we were presenting. I also worked to teach children and adults about what engineering is.

Did you achieve your goals?

I believe I achieved my goals, both tangible and personal. I fulfilled the tangible goals of planning and leading our “I Need Space!” and “Rockets, Cars, and Planes, Oh My!” camps as well as helping with other camps, running the planetarium, and helping with science demonstrations. I also met my own personal goals, which were to be a positive role model for young girls interested in STEM, generate an interest in STEM, and reinforce skills that are important in STEM. I believe my presence at the Grout Museum was a positive representation for women interested in STEM, but I also did my best to encourage young women to pursue the field. I helped to generate an interest in STEM by creating and presenting engaging science demonstrations and planetarium shows. Finally, I helped reinforce skills that are integral to STEM, such as teamwork, creativity, and critical thinking by building activities that require these skills into my planned camps.

Describe positive lessons learned:

One of the big lessons I learned during this internship was to consider why a person might be acting the way that they are. As adults, we often don’t consider this. However, after working with children, my thinking often shifts away from thoughts that blame the person toward thoughts that are more understanding of why the person is acting the way that they are. For example, when the children are being more rambunctious than normal, my initial thought is now to consider how hands on and engaging the activities have been rather than to blame the children for their own energy.

Describe negative lessons learned:

Some challenges I had during this internship was the space we hosted our camps in. Because we did not have a dedicated space for our camps, it could be a challenge to move supplies and be constantly thinking about what things we could and couldn’t do in the space we were in. For example, some of our camps were hosted in a conference room in the Grout Museum, so we had to be extremely careful to make sure the campers didn’t spill paint or anything else that could stain. The space issue was especially difficult for our bigger camps that needed to be split into to different groups as one group had to be outside for the other to be inside. This was difficult to pull off with variable weather conditions.

What was the impact of this internship?

Throughout the internship I gained experience in public speaking by presenting science demonstrations and planetarium shows. I improved my ability to be flexible under stress by leading the “I Need Space!” and “Rockets, Cars, and Planes, Oh My!” camps, where we were constantly adapting to the needs and energy levels of our campers. Finally, I improved my own problem solving skills by intentionally working through the steps of solving a problems with campers. This was intended to help them understand how to solve a problem, but by practicing it so much it actually improved my own ability to problem solve. All of these skills are things that are directly beneficial to my time as a student of engineering as well as in my future career.