Summer interns bring energy, experience
Among this 2013's eight summer interns, Sophia Elia has the most underground science experience, much of it earned here at the Sanford Lab.
Elia, who grew up in Rapid City, S.D., was an Education Department intern at the Sanford Lab the summer after her junior year in high school. Then, last summer, she was one of nine students chosen for the elite Davis-Bahcall Scholarship Program, sponsored by 3M. The nine scholars studied at the Sanford Lab and at Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. (Gran Sasso is in the same region the Elia family is originally from.) This summer Elia is a Science Department intern, and next fall she begins her sophomore year at the University of California, Berkeley, where she'll major in physics.
We asked the interns to provide a favorite quote, if they had one. Elia offered wisdom from Lemony Snicket: "There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself."
Dakotah Simpson, who grew up in Lead, also arrived with previous Sanford Lab experience. He twice participated in master classes here. Simpson will be a sophomore at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) this fall. He's majoring in electrical engineering, and this summer he'll work with Experiment Health and Safety Manager Chuck Lichtenwalner. Simpson's favorite quote: "If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room." (Unattributed)
Operations Department intern Bennett Prosser, of Sturgis, S.D., will be a junior at SDSMT next year. He's a double major in mechanical and electrical engineering, and this summer he'll work with Surface Operations Foreman Dan Regan and Facility Infrastructure Director Tim Baumgartner. Prosser plays horn in the SDSMT symphonic band, he plays guitar in the jazz band and he leads the school's Society of Automotive Engineers' electric snowmobile team.
Ashley Wingert of Custer, S.D., is a chemistry major (with a biology minor) from Black Hills State University. She was initially pegged as an Information Technology (IT) intern, but Science Director Jaret Heise "stole her." (This according to Deb Meyer, who runs the IT Department.) So Wingert is working on the Majorana Demonstrator experiment this summer. She enjoys hiking, swimming, kayaking and reading. A favorite novel: To Kill a Mockingbird.
The IT Department does, however, have two interns. Both are from Black Hills State University, where they worked in Network and Computer Services. Brianna Schmidt is an elementary education major. Her favorite quote is from Mahatma Gandhi: ?Be the change that you wish to see in the world." Brian Jones" who has heard the question 'Like the Rolling Stone'" all his life'is an English major. Jones chose a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."
Education Department intern Anna Hafele is a senior at Black Hills State University (BHSU), majoring in outdoor education and biology. But she also has a physics background. Hafele works with BHSU Physics Professor Andy Johnson on research into how students understand radiation. Hafele grew up in Newell, S.D., where her family raises cattle, sheep and hay. Her favorite quote is from Richard Feynman: "Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there."
Communications Department intern Laura Howard is a junior studying photography and graphic design at Black Hills State University. She's originally from Utah. Howard moved to the Black Hills with her husband, who works for the Black Hills National Forest. Howard enjoys drawing in charcoal and pencil. This summer she'll work mostly with Multimedia Specialist Matt Kapust. Her favorite quote is from Oscar Wilde: "Be yourself; everyone else is taken."