A Wonderful Time at the International Science School
From the first second of the introduction to hanging on the final words at the closing event, I could not have had a more wonderful experience at the International Science School (ISS). From all the wonderful people I met to all of the experiences we shared together, I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the ISS in 2022.
Going into it I was unsure how exciting it would be. Because it was online, I wondered if I would just be going back to the bore of online school. Would I have to sit through zoom lectures just staring blankly at the screen not really sure what the talk was about? From day one, however, I knew it was going to be nothing like that. The mix of lectures and workshops made it exciting as well as engaging, and the group discord server never failed to disappoint.
Every lecture gave me new insights into various scientific fields, some of which I knew nothing about. All of the presenters were very captivating and they always answered all of our questions so that we fully understood what they were referring to. I learned so many fantastic things that as soon as I got off zoom every night I always talked to whoever was around about what I had learned. The first words out of my mouth were always listen to this interesting fact or did you know this was being researched.
After the lectures, we had fantastic workshops each day. Ranging anywhere from physics to ethics, the workshops gave me a great to talk with my peers and learn something new. The kits shipped out to us before the ISS began had everything we needed to do our own experiments which made it ten times more exciting than watching something happen on a screen. During online school, I remember taking chemistry and being disappointed that we only got to watch videos of something changing colors or some other experiment, but here I was able to still do my own tests while being on the opposite side of the world as most of the group.
All of the other students were fantastic throughout the whole week. It was so pleasant getting to meet all of them and getting to learn about their lives in Australia or Japan. Everyone was so friendly and always open to talking about anything. The socials were a great time to get to know everyone and have some fun with them. With socials almost every day, they provided a great time to hang out and cap off another great day of learning.
I cannot say enough good things about my time at the ISS this year. It was certainly a tremendous highlight of my summer. I hope many others are able to have similar experiences at the ISS in future years and many more young scientists will be inspired.
