Hello, friends! Sheeva here. I am excited to say I survived my summer of teaching STEM, including robotics and electronics, to high schoolers. Thanks for your patience!
The future of Fancy Comma has felt uncertain, but we turned in a new direction this summer, thanks to our two Georgetown VIEW program interns who carried the Fancy Comma torch, conducting independent research for Fancy Comma and writing articles unpacking complex governmental issues facing science. One of my favorite things about Fancy Comma is the fact that we are more than a science communications and policy consulting company — we also put fresh ideas into the wild. In that way, we’re like if the “little engine that could” was a tiny think tank. :-)
I owe our two interns, Toby and Ella, a huge debt of gratitude for their fearless tackling of the issues facing science today — and one to Georgetown, too, for paying the interns a modest stipend so they could work with me!
The Georgetown VIEW program was set up as a way to help Hoyas whose internships were pulled due to government changes by connecting them with Georgetown alums (in this case, me - Hoya Saxa!).
As it happened, neither of our interns had a job cancelled due to our government’s changes. Nevertheless, we had fun this summer nerding out about Supreme Court cases and asking ourselves the tough science policy questions of the moment. I learned a lot from our interns, and I hope they learned a lot from me as editor of their blogs! This work is sorely needed but incredibly under-resourced right now, so I am proud of us for making it happen!
This month, after I wrote about the secret code of lights and buzzers in Congress, our interns took over. Ella wrote about the role of science in the Skrmetti Supreme Court decision and the scientific crossroads faced by the Supreme Court. Toby wrote about why scientists should communicate uncertainty.
We’ve got more blogs in the works about the role of science in the judicial system. We’ll be publishing the interns’ amazing blogs for the next month or so, so take a moment to meet Toby and Ella below!
Fancy Comma’s Summer 2025 Georgetown University VIEW Interns
Ella Lesher brings a strong interdisciplinary perspective to Fancy Comma. She holds a B.S. in both Neurobiology and Government from Georgetown University where she also was a student journalist. Ella will return to Georgetown this summer as a Technology Law and Policy Scholar at the Law Center. She is interested in science communication for lawyers and politicians to drive decision-making, especially as related to neuroscience. Find her on LinkedIn or read her posts on the Fancy Comma blog here.
Toby Shu is a rising sophomore at Georgetown University seeking a BS in Mathematics and History. Carrying forward Fancy Comma’s interdisciplinary focus, Toby is interested in constitutional law, the history of science, and the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Find him on LinkedIn or read his contributions to the Fancy Comma blog here.
That’s all for this month! If you liked this blog, please share it!
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