I am so grateful that I got the chance to participate in the
STEM program this year and work with Dr. Bellis. Before this year, I had never
even taken a physics class before. It was definitely challenging to start my
internship without a lot of background knowledge, especially when I had to do
independent work at school. I’d also always thought of scientific research as
being in the lab, but my work with Dr. Bellis taught me otherwise. I spent a
lot of time on my computer, reading published papers and writing code. It was
frustrating at times because I couldn’t really see where all of my work was
taking me, but by the end all the pieces started to come together and I really
understood what I was studying. I also learned to not let minor obstacles deter
me from reaching my research goal. Overall, this year has been a very rewarding
experience. I’m looking forward to continuing to do scientific research.
From my poster:
“Particle physicists study the smallest possible things in
the universe, and ask the biggest questions. There might be no immediate
practical applications to discovering the hybrid meson, but it will take us one
step closer to understanding what we’re made of. My internship has given me
both practical research skills and a deeper understanding of the unknown. I am
no longer scared of the biggest questions. Instead, they push me to keep
learning.”
