Week 9 at the EPA: Intern Presentations & Our Nation’s Air 2k19
Welcome back! This week, the 9 OAQPS interns presented their summer projects and research to staff and management. Each one of us has been working on different issues, and I was really excited to learn about what everyone else had been up to. It was also a great opportunity to see the depth and breadth of the work that EPA is involved in.
During my presentation, I spoke about the work I’ve been doing with EPA Advance as well as SIPs and air quality regulation as a whole. I also gave a shoutout to this blog (!!!) and explained how it was a way for me to reflect on what I’d learned at EPA and draw connections between it and our class work. Overall, my presentation went really well! Public speaking is not something I’ve ever been particularly excited about, but I’ve gotten a lot better at it with practice. I’ve led countless presentations throughout undergrad and the MPA program, so while my hands still get a little sweaty (ok, a lot sweaty), I don’t fear public speaking like I used to. So now I am not only confident in the subject matter, but also confident in myself. During this presentation, I was discussing material that I care deeply about and my co-workers came to support me, which helped ease my nerves.
Me when OAQPS Director Peter Tsirigotis walked in to watch my presentation.
The other interns have been working on a variety of projects including sensor monitoring, energy production, and air quality modeling. Since my work is so heavily involved with the policy and implementation side of things, it is easy for me to forget the slew of other projects and programs that EPA leads, such as raw data collection and analysis, so I very much enjoyed learning from the other interns. The presentations were a great way to summarize what we’ve learned, practice our presentation skills, and reflect on our overall experience with OAQPS.
In addition to participating in our presentations, I attended a briefing about the latest air quality trends. EPA publishes an extremely informative and user-friendly annual report on national air quality status and trends using data from the previous year. The 2019 national air quality report, titled “Our Nation’s Air 2019,” can be found here.
I have less than two weeks left here at EPA as a full-time intern, and I am quite sad about it. This summer has gone by so fast and there are a lot of things left to learn. However, I am looking forward to going back to school, seeing all of my fellow bloggers again, and pursuing a long term career in this field!
Thanks for reading!
Sydney
