Emile: Countdown to Beijing

With less than 24 hours left until our arrival at RDU airport (7:30 am on Thursday!), the nerves are racing! Nerves stemming from not only the excitement of a trip to Beijing and the opportunity to meet high schoolers from around the world, but also from the soon arrival of college and scholarship decisions as well as the busyness of senior year.

Participating in the Beijing Youth Science Creation Competition is such a great opportunity; Emily, Geoffrey, and I were also able to be a part of the North Carolina Junior Symposium for Humanities and Science (JSHS) this past weekend in Wilmington. It was great! We got to engage with students from around the state and see what kind of projects other N.C. high schoolers were doing. Geoffrey and I both got to give oral presentations and Emily represented the team in the poster presentation. It was definitely good practice for the poster sessions we’ll be doing in Beijing and getting even more use to scientific discourse.

From submitting our initial papers for review to the oral presentations in December to now flying to China in less than a day, the entire process has been a whirlwind. I am so excited to embark on this journey and see the implications of STEM beyond my NCSSM, Durham, and North Carolina community.

Wish us luck as we get to the airport early in the morning and arrive in Beijing around p.m. on Saturday (5 am in Durham time!).

Image by Michael Siebert from Pixabay