SPIRE-EIT 2023 First Blog

Welcome to my summer blog! It has been a hectic month of May, and I can’t wait to officially kick off this summer. For some context, the last few weeks have been filled with constant moving and traveling all over the Midwest. The first leg of my journey involved wrapping up school and attending our Conference meet in North Dakota. After that, I drove back home to Iowa for a day and immediately hit the road again to visit my folks on the farm in Wisconsin. Lastly, I flew out to Marion, Indiana, to participate in the NAIA National Outdoor track meet. Phew! That was a lot of traveling. I’m grateful to have finally arrived in Ames and start my summer (and hopefully stay in one place).

I arrived in Ames on Tuesday and immediately got to work setting up the apartment. After a long afternoon of grocery shopping, rebuilding my bedframe, and moving in, I learned a lot about living on my own. I discovered that regular dish soap does not work in a dishwasher, as it resulted in a flood of bubbles in my apartment. Additionally, I learned the hard way that I have to be careful when moving my monitor; otherwise, I risk cracking the screen and needing to replace it. After enjoying a fantastic welcoming dinner and meeting the other interns, day one of the program came to an end

Day 2 was filled to the brim with lots of walking, whether it was walking to VRAC, on the tour, getting our IDs, going to lunch, or completing the scavenger hunt. It was a long day of walking. After returning to Freddy, I met up with another intern from my hometown, and we went rock climbing and played disc golf. The next day, we were introduced to the projects for the year and met with our research mentors to discuss the timeline and goals of our respective projects. Our group seemed to consist of passionate individuals, and I am grateful that the other interns and I were selected to be a part of the 3D Game For First-Gen Students. Once I learn more about it, I will provide a more in-depth description.