Allow me to take a moment to introduce myself and tell you a bit about my background. I am the new APS science writing intern. Currently, I hold four bachelor’s degrees and am working on a master’s. My first bachelor’s was in English from Florida Gulf Coast University. Last May (2017) I graduated from Florida State University with three Bachelor of Science degrees in astrophysics, meteorology, and biomathematics. This past fall I started my master’s degree in space studies through the University of North Dakota.
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| In the Apollo capsule (center) at UND, learning how not to drive a space ship. |
I have almost always been a writer of some kind, but I did not start out this way. As a child I learned to play the piano from age two. By age eleven I was taking lessons from a professional teacher. My exposure to the other young talents in the area sufficiently crushed my dreams of Carnegie Hall. I decided to seek out other ways to express myself. The books I was reading at the time were not complicated, so I thought I could try my hand at writing them. I still enjoy writing them, drawing inspiration from my science background.
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| August 2017 just outside Nashville, sporting my super-stylish eclipse glasses. |
In college I took a lot of science courses that helped highlight one of the great loves of my life: space. I spend a lot of my childhood staring up at the night sky. In my second round as an undergrad, long after the English degree was done, I went after the astrophysics degree. A first semester class and all the cool facts about Titan’s atmosphere inspired me to double up in meteorology. I have since graduated and moved into the graduate program at UND where I intend to focus my master’s degree on planetary science.
Besides my academic side, I have a lot of hobbies that keep me busy. I play several instruments, of which I am most skilled at the piano. Like my mother before me, I paint but my art is typically confined to tiny one inch canvases as that is all I have time for usually. I have been a competitive ballroom dancer. Most recently though, this Florida native has taken up ice skating.
That’s all for now. I’ll see you out there in the blogosphere.