Q: How was the first study group meeting?
A: I think I picked the wrong time. An unfortunate goof that I made was that the study day was scheduled squarely between one of the labs, and so I think for that reason a lot of people couldn’t attend who wanted to. Now that I know that, we’re going to adjust things, it’s important to me to make sure that the resource is as available as it possibly can be.
Q:How often will the study group meet?
A: Just once before every [General Physics] exam. It’s not intended to be a replacement for other studying, just another space, another resource. I’ve been encouraging people not to just save all their studying for the end, because you will fail, which is hard, but managing expectations, we’ll provide the space so you can have another perspective that’s not a professor or a YouTube video, something a little bit more real-time.
Q: Why did you decide to start facilitating physics study group meetings?
A: It’s not a unique thing, particularly for STEM orgs to do study days on campus, it’s certainly been done by many other clubs, but that’s the thing— physics hasn’t had that. When I came in [to Hamline], the Society of Physics Students did nothing, everything was just starting to come back after COVID-19, so I understand, and then it started to pick up a little bit, but it only did so for those far-along declared majors, and it was nice, but how’re you going to get people to that point?
Q: Why is it important to you to make physics accessible?
A: I just personally feel that it’s incredibly rewarding learning how the world works. Philosophically, having dialogue with the universe just feels really cool, but also we do a lot of things with it. There’s a lot you can do to help people with Physics. And sure, you can do that with biology, chemistry, arts as well, these are all important things, but my thing is physics so that is what I care about just a little bit more than the other things, so I think it could be an incredible tool to help people and make their lives better. If people want to get into [physics] because they want to help people, or maybe they want good job security, because for now there is really good job security in these fields, I want to empower people to be able to do what they want to do, and not feel like they don’t belong, or that they can’t do it because they’re just not smart enough, because that’s not true.
The Society of Physics Students will host the second study group of the year on Oct. 18 at 3:00 p.m. in Robbins Science Center room 11, snacks will be provided.
