Hey everyone,
Last week we all met at Rice University for our NEWT orientation. I had never been to Texas before visiting Rice, and it was a wonderful experience! The campus was BEAUTIFUL.
There were a lot of engaging activities during the orientation. One of which was already blogged about- the little spaghetti noodle marshmallow tower challenge! Although our team made the least impressive tower, we had 
a lot of fun with it. There were also a lot of really informative presentations on water quality and availability. Jorge made it interesting with small group activities dispersed throughout the presentations and showed us an interesting documentary call
ed Watermark. With free popcorn!
The o
rientation only lasted a day and a half, but I wish we could have stayed a little longer. Regardless, I feel like I really got a chance to know and connect with my fellow NEWT interns from each campus. I think a lot of that had to do with being able to stay in the campus dorms together, which in itself was a fun experience. Of course, I had to stop by the campus store and get myself a Rice t-shirt
. I love that we each got a copy of “Nanotechnology for Dummies” at the end of the orientation. My fellow ASU interns started reading it the second we boarded the plane! #nanonerds.
Between all of the delicious free food, beautiful campus, and awesome newfound colleagues, the orientation experience in itself was really, really neat. I can’t wait to go back in August!