1. What is your internship and why did you choose it?
This summer I’m continuing my research from the Spring semester with the Astronomy Department where I work on trajectory and tour analysis for the upcoming Europa Clipper mission. The mission is launching in 2023(ish) and will go to one of Jupiter’s moons (Europa) to help us gain insight on the moon’s geology, interior, and potential habitability. My advisor is part of the Europa Imaging System (EIS) instrument team and the Geology Working Group for the mission, so my job is to make plots and do analysis for which set of trajectories get the best coverage for EIS and geologic insight. I chose to continue my research over the summer since there was a big conference in June that I wanted to help with, and I wanted an excuse to spend a summer in Ithaca!
2. Tell us about a friendship you’ve formed in APO.
My closest friends are all in APO, some of them I knew beforehand but I probably wouldn’t have gotten to know them so well if it wasn’t for APO. One of these people is Angela Li. We actually met through playing ultimate frisbee but didn’t get to know each other until we pledged APO together in Spring 2018. Even though our schedules are always packed with a lot of different things, we’ll try to go to service events together as an excuse to catch up and do something meaningful together. Since she lives in the apartment upstairs from mine, she’s also my official guinea pig when I try baking something new. In return she and her roommates give me free vegetables from a student farm they work at.
3. What is your favorite service project at Cornell? Why?
There are so many to choose from! I would have to say my favorite is Letters Against Depression. While it is a heavy subject and I have to be in the right mindset to attend and make my experience meaningful, I find that Letters is incredibly rewarding and it feels like I can actually make a difference in someone’s life through writing them a personal letter.
4. What is something you’ve learned from service?
I learned about reciprocity through the Brotherhood Service Talks! I didn’t realize that when we do service, it’s also okay to serve ourselves and get something in return. I guess I always assumed we do service exclusively to help the group we’re serving and improve some aspect of their lives, but talking about reciprocity of service was very eye-opening. Now I have another way to think about the service I sign up for.
