Students Report, Network at AAAS Annual Meeting
Seven students from the Texas A&M University science and technology journalism graduate program attended the 2011 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, held February 17-21 in Washington, DC. Their activities included covering science communication sessions for Science Editor, the Council of Science Editors periodical.
The students also attended some of the many science sessions. “The number of sessions and all of the different topics at the AAAS conference made me feel like a kid in a candy store,” said Katie Cowart, a first-year student.
Besides attending sessions, the students took advantage of networking opportunities. One opportunity was the internship fair, where students spoke briefly with representatives of many publications, research institutions, and other internship sites. This event, organized by the National Association of Science Writers, also was a chance to meet students from other programs.
The meeting provided “celebrity sightings” as well. Among attendees were Deborah Blum, one of the editors of A Field Guide for Science Writers (a book used in the program); editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina and columnist Steve Mirsky, both of Scientific American; and Alan Boyle, science editor for msnbc.com.
STJR student Alex Arreola and Scientific American columnist Steve Mirsky