Not only are you learning new material during the internship and inside the lab but you are also learning outside from that. During my internship, AIM Photonics, I was giving a schedule that has many fascinating things to do outside the lab. From professors presenting materials, dinner with faculty and industries, meeting other interns and learning about their projects, and talks giving by a variety of different people. I know studying too much may be overwhelming and frustrating but having outside activities and learning different material outside the lab helps clear the mind and may motivate you to get back in the lab and solve your problem.

We have general meetings on Friday, presentation talks throughout the week, personal(self) presentations of our own projects, dinner with faculty/industries, and many other exciting things to do throughout the week to attend. During our general meetings on Friday all the interns from different internship meet to have a free lunch provided by the internship and have guest speakers that teach us all new material about academics and material that can help us in the real world. The general meetings are great because you get to see your peers, time outside the lab to relax and socialize, and learn new material other than what you are doing in the lab. Not only is their presentation talks during general meetings on Friday, they’re outside talks from different faculty professors on campus as well. The talks are optional and you may attend any one that you want. There are talks from different majors, startup talks, and talks that can help you become a better student.

Other than the talks, you get to have dinner with the faculty from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and get to learn from them as well. You may ask them questions about their journey to become a professor, engineer, or whatever there major is. Many professor have fascinating stories about their life and what they went through to be where they’re at right now. The dinner with faculty is the best time to learn new things from the professors and see that life isn’t so broad to become a professor. Many have done different things in life to get where they’re at right now from traveling, attending different schools before ending up at UCSB, retired and still having their labs at UCSB, and other amazing stories. These opportunities that we, interns, get is amazing because most professors are so busy to talk to students but at this dinner you have a chance to learn from them about their background, make a great impression, and get your foot in the door to become close with them. Most people would die or do anything for an opportunity like this and I am happy that I was able to see and chat to many different professors for an hour and a half. I would say talking and having dinner with these professors is a highlight of my first 3 weeks of my intern because they may remember you that you can get a spot in their labs in the future, a tour of their labs, and maybe a future positions as a graduate student or postdoc. This dinner you may learn a lot from different professors that you didn’t know about from their background, research, and life. Great way to learn outside the lab and maybe see your professor that you can get more details about your research or help personally from them.