Planning and Preparation FTW

Wow, today was one of those crazy hectic days that really call for a huge sigh of relief when they are over. But thanks to some careful planning, I am happy to blog that everything went smoothly.

The day began with an accepted student coming in. This student has actually visited before at about this same time last year, but wanted to visit again so that he could sit in on some upper-level classes. I planned out a whole day for him that included meeting with students, sitting in on two upper level courses (DIP and radiometry), meeting with someone to discuss military and intelligence applications of imaging science (his particular interest), lunch on campus with a group of students, participating in the Freshmen Imaging Project, and a tour of the dorms with one of our students who happens to be an RA. Phew! It took a bit of coordination but I am happy to report that we showed him a fantastic day. He is a great student with a lot of potential, and his interests and personality are a perfect fit for Imaging Science. I really hope he decides to come here, as he would be a great addition!

Concurrent to this visit, we also had our first intern interview. I had mentioned in a previous post that one of our out-of-state applicants expressed interest in interviewing in person, so I wanted to make sure I planned a day's worth of interesting activities to help make the long drive worth it. After meeting with me for a bit first, this intern applicant met with the first of his two preferred labs. Afterward he too sat in on the freshmen class, and I hear the students put him to work. What better way to get involved than to actually get hands on? Following class he had his second interview, after which I gave him a personal tour of the whole building. After the tour his dad came to pick him up, and as it turns out he is an imaging science alumnus! Roger Easton (with the office across from mine) happened to walk by and was was excited to run into him, so he then took the applicant and his dad down to his lab to talk about what he does. I hear this ended up being a great impromptu meeting and resulted in heightened interest from the applicant in yet a third lab! This is a little extra treatment and attention than most intern applicants get, but then again he put in some extra effort to come here, and we wanted to make sure his day was fulfilling - plus this helped us to reconnect with an alumnus. Although there's no telling yet how this whole thing will fare for the applicant regarding the internship (since he is the very first interview), I hope that overall he enjoyed his visit regardless. And now I will refrain from commenting any further, since I don't want to introduce any possible bias into the intern selection process that I try my absolute best to remain independent from. (Although I will go ahead and independently point out that this potential intern had a totally rockin NASA jacket that was covered in Apollo mission patches. Yeah, I'm way jealous.)

In the end, a great day! I hope to see more of both of these visitors in the future (hopefully as students)!

Good times with the freshmen class.