Earlier this January I was able to take Pacific Science Center’s Discovery Corps Planetarium Intern, Sarah, to the American Astronomical Society meeting here in Seattle when she got out of school for the day. We had a grand time, and a big thank you is owed to AAS for granting Sarah admission despite her status as a high school student.

Here’s what Sarah has to say about the experience:

Going to the AAS meetings with Alice was, in many ways, mind-boggling. The attitude that I felt when walking into various sessions and poster room was awesome! It was that I was walking into a room filled with people of related interests to my own. This vibe the meetings held was probably the same reason why the experience was so very overwhelming.

I took over five pages of notes during the sessions; this is only impressive considering that I understood about 35% of what was being presented. What I realized later, when I was home and taking out of context of the meeting, was what ultimately affected me the most. It was that I, along with the other participants in this meeting, was so enthralled in the information. We could care less what other things were going on around us. To be so utterly drenched in what we were learning was fantastic! Besides the massive amount of people attending and the quantity of information there was, it was the fact that for the first time I was walking into a room full of people understood more about astronomy then I did. I know it may sound a bit big headed but besides the occasional science teacher or supervisor here at PSC, for example Alice, I have always been the go to girl when it came to astronomy.

This past year, I have been giving most of my other interests a back seat and began really getting immersed in the world of astronomy. Becoming the Planetarium Intern and a lead investigator for my Astrobiology club, my dream of working within the realm of astronomy was becoming a reality. Attending the American Astronomical Society meeting was an experience that was utterly thrilling and I believe I will treasure it for a long time to come.

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~ A l i c e !

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