2022 D.C. Advocacy Trip

I was thrilled to arrange and lead the 2022 Princeton Citizen Scientists trip to Washington D.C. in tandem with my fantastic co-exec board. In this session, we met with staff at the Library of Congress and the National Academy of Sciences. We got a tour of the premises for the latter, as well. We had a mixer with local science policy professionals, and ended with visits to representatives.

PCS members broke into three groups for the visits – one advocated for STEM education, one for energy policy, and one for solutions to food insecurity. I joined this third group, and got the opportunity to learn and speak about the critical problems posed by (and potential solutions to) food deserts in the United States. Staffers at each senator’s office had vastly different backgrounds and approaches to the conversations – this trip was a great chance to experience The Hill firsthand.

Because of my election to the Graduate Student Government, I will be stepping down as president of Princeton Citizen Scientists next year. I deeply enjoyed the job, and eagerly anticipate the chance to join this trip again next year as a [non-leadership] participant.