Just as quickly as it began, our Apprenticeships in Science & Engineering program has come to a close in 2022.
On August 11th, our 82 phenomenal interns presented at our virtual Symposium. Though we could not be in person to celebrate the close of the ASE program, the interns presented on all of their topics with such nuance and confidence, it is hard to believe that they had only been working with their mentors for 8 weeks, not 8 months or more. Their confidence and knowledge about the topics translated just as well over Zoom.
We learned about the prevalence of microplastics in the environment from a group at Portland State University, and developments in recycling plastic into fuel from a group at Oregon State University. Amid mounting concerns about climate change, we learned how to build a portable wind turbine and how to modernize the management of water. We learned many ways that machine learning can be harnessed, from designing vectors for human gene therapy to minimizing food waste.
We will have recordings of our intern presentations available on the Event Page soon. You’ll also be able to watch the keynote speaker, recognition ceremony, and closing remarks in each individual session.
While we are sad to see the summer come to a close, we are excited to see how our ASE interns will leverage their experience to further hone their skills, continue down the STEM path (or not), and make big decisions in the coming months and years regarding post-high school education and careers.
These interns have now graduated to “ASE Alum” status, and as such, will be invited to join our ASE Alum Mailing List, our networking events, and to get involved with future cohorts of interns as Alum. A blog post is coming soon about a ASE Alum networking event hosted this past July.
The last official business as ASE interns this summer is their End of Summer Packet. The most exciting part of the end of summer packet is the annual ASE t-shirt. There is always much anticipation surrounding the design of the shirt as each year is a different color and different design submitted by one of our participants. This year, the design selected was submitted by Dristi who interned at Oregon State University. You can see us wearing it in the photo above. Thanks for a great design, Dristi!
We look forward to connecting with our 2022 interns as Alums soon.
- Maura and Allison, ASE Staff