The Week in Washington

The week in Washington for the STI was one of the highlights of my life. And that's not because of the little things, like meeting the President and various Nobel prize winners or spending two days presenting my project at the National Academy of Sciences. It's because the 39 other finalists are absolutely amazing people. More than that, we formed a bond that makes very little sense given the circumstances. After all, we were only together for a week, and under pretty stressfully competitive conditions. But we left loving each other, hugging goodbye after all-nighters spent to prolong the time before the inevitable departures. We've stayed in touch for real--meaning at least five group e-mails a day and as many small reunions in the few months since March. Each of us now knows at least 39 people he can trust with his life or turn to when he needs help. Usually only religion or madness or desperation yields such quick trust. It's an incredible feeling. (To be fair, we were told we were an unusually cohesive group. Perhaps we were. Perhaps all y'all will be, too!)

Thursday, March 9

Everyone arrived by about noon; West Coast people flew in a day early so they wouldn't have to wake up at midnight to catch a flight. We were picked up at the airport or train station by friendly Science Service staff and shuttled to the St. Regis Hotel (from which, yes, you can see the White House). After retrieving our name tags and packets of information (including $50), we hung out in the lobby, waiting for room assignments and room keys.

A walk to the White House on Thursday morning. (Photo by Jenny Taylor)

Some of us still needed to put together our little posters. (I brought mine rolled up in a tube, and taped it to the two halves of a foam board backing I'd brought in my suitcase.) Lunch involved a lot of being speeched at, but not in a bad way. The most memorable quote was this: ``There are false negatives, but there are no false positives.'' Essentially, there were lots of people who deserved this honor and didn't receive it--but none of us in the room was an ``impostor.'' Just about every single one of us heartily agreed with the former statement and heartily distrusted the latter in our own personal case.

Next on the agenda was two hours of media training with Jack Franchetti, who also trains business executives and all sorts of other people who actually pay him. This was far more interesting than it looked on the schedule, and I ended up with a full page of notes on how to talk to scary people with cameras. Looking back on the experience I think the training was probably overkill--you don't deal that much with the media, and just about no one is out to get you. Still, it was useful to spend time thinking about how to present our projects to the media rather than to scientists who already take on faith that your work is, somehow, useful.

Finally we had a chance to go back to our rooms and unpack or walk around the city a bit before the Orientation dinner, which was, I believe, when we first heard the term ``QTH.'' QTH stands for Quick Trip Home, and it's what happens to anyone who does anything even remotely questionable in terms of behavior. We were very quiet after that declaration, but the Science Service staff are not nearly as scary as they try to sound.

In the evening, we got our first look at the ``eLounge,'' a big room in the hotel filled with nice laptops and a big-screen TV. This facilitates ``bonding.'' It's also just plain cool, and means that you can keep in touch with friends at home, look up a question you've been meaning to check up on for your project, Google the answers to judging interview questions and groan, or have IM conversations with the people sitting next to you for the heck of it. When I first checked my e-mail there, I saw that my older sister Becky had sent me a gorgeous picture of some flowers to welcome me to D.C.--aww!

Eventually we all headed back to our spiffy rooms to get some rest before the first real day of judging.