Summer Internship Program Kicks Off
June 18, 2014
NEON is pleased to welcome its second cohort of summer interns! This year, seven interns join NEON mentor teams to analyze preliminary AOP, aquatic, and terrestrial data, code algorithms to automate image and data processing, and explore citizen science data for early trends. It promises to be an exciting summer.
Their first week was packed with orientation and training activities, starting with a Sunday evening welcome dinner reception hosted by NEON and two other Boulder-based Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs, UCAR’s SOARS (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science) program and UNAVCO’s RESESS (Research Experiences in Solid Earth Science for Students). Our interns enjoyed meeting students from around the country and forming a larger cohort of interns for the summer. They met again that week to participate in an all-day leadership training workshop led by experts at 5.12 Solutions to learn communications styles and skills that will serve them not only during their stay at NEON but throughout their careers.
Orientation continued with group tours of NEON, UNAVCO, and NCAR’s facilities in Boulder. Together, students and staff explored NEON’s Engineering and Calibration Validation labs, UNAVCO’s terrestrial laser scanning capabilities, and NCAR’s Table Mesa facility and 3-D data visualizations.
The interns began work at NEON headquarters on May 22 with field safety training, which prepared them to visit and work at NEON field sites around the country. By the end of the week, they met with their mentors and plunged into literature reviews for their research projects. They also attended the first session of a summer-long workshop on scientific communications with SOARS and learned how to prepare an “elevator speech” on their project. What a week!
The interns’ eleven-week stay will be packed with trips to various NEON field sites, learning opportunities at headquarters, and new experiences in and around Boulder. Stay tuned for updates from the interns themselves! We are pleased to welcome the 2014 interns to headquarters this year:
Madeleine Ball Tufts University Majoring in Environmental Science and American Studies Working with senior staff scientist, Shelley Petroy, and staff scientist, Nathan Leisso Stephanie Cortés University of Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia Double majoring in Environmental Engineering and Industrial Engineering Working with staff scientists, Michael SanClements and Sarah Elmendorf Ariel Kaluzhny Wesleyan University Majoring in Computer Science Working with Francois Pradeau and Jim Arnow in the CyberInfrastructure Department Victor Leos Bowdoin College Majoring in Biology and Environmental Studies Working with staff scientists, David Hoekman and Natalie Robinson, and associate scientist, Katie Jones Rose Petersky SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Majoring in Environmental Science Working with staff scientists, Michael Fitzgerald and Ryan Utz Kevin Sacca Rochester Institute of Technology Majoring in Imaging Science Working with staff scientists, Michael SanClements and Sarah Elmendorf Caleb Shaw (STAR Teacher/Researcher Fellow) University of New Hampshire B.S. Environmental Studies & M.Ed. Science Education Working with Sarah Newman, Sandra Henderson and Liz Goehring in the Education Department