Summer Students had the unique opportunity to get a glimpse of the life at CERN by attending fascinating lectures, visiting the underground facilities and working in the experimental teams. In addition, besides developing their academic skills, the summer school experience will help the participants establish useful contacts with students and scientists from all over the world. The organizers had prepared a rich and diverse programme of activities in order to offer the students an unforgettable experience.
Member State Summer Students 2014: A word from the organizers.
The Summer Student Programme does not mean only work during the Summer for the HR team, the Programme for us begins in October with the publication of the vacancy notice for the following year’s programme on the HR website and ends when the last students leave at the end of September – so it’s a year-round Programme. Applications are considered and validated from October to the application deadline, usually at the end of January. Assessing up to 1500 applications is quite a task! And that’s just Member States – we have the same number of Non-Member States student applications too.
The 2014 MS Summer Student team (from left to right): Jennifer Dembski, Roxana Banica and Sharon Hobson
The selections are made in March by the supervisors and the lucky selected students are informed in April. Contracts are prepared and sent in May and the first students start arriving in June. On each of the 5 arrival dates the Summer Student team meets and greets the students for a brief induction session to inform them about their Summer at CERN. Whilst the students are here we organize visits to the experiments, small hands on workshops around CERN and coordinate the 6 week lecture programme. We organize a welcome drink so that the students can meet each other. A Poster session and student sessions (where the students give their own lectures about their assigned project) are organised as a good educational exercise for the students wishing to participate.
Each year the students organize their own T-shirt design, talent concerts and other social events. After the String Theory lecture this year we had a wonderful unexpected performance from 3 students of their version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” with theoretical lyrics. (See link)
https://cds.cern.ch/record/1748663
All in all we are here to help the students have a fruitful Summer and get the most out of their time at CERN. Many of them tell us on their departure that it was “the best Summer of my life”.
A word from the organizers of the Non-Member States (NMS) Programme
The Non-Member States Summer Student Programme is a chance for the students from all over the world to acquire great training in physics, engineering, computing and mathematics. To enjoy CERN’s cosmopolitan atmosphere, make friendships, share experiences and participate in multiple lectures and workshops organized throughout the summer.
The programme becomes more and more popular, thus it’s even harder to select the candidates, since they are all brilliant! As Emmanuel Tsesmelis, coordinator of the NMS programme, notes: "the Programme, which started out under John Elllis, has developed significantly over the past ten years. In 2003 there were 30 NMS summer students. In 2014, 126 Non-Member States students from 53 different countries were selected to participate in the programme, from over 1600 applicants. Thus the selection process is a very complex and difficult task".
The NMS Summer Students Programme constitutes an important part of CERN's policy of promoting greater global integration in particle physics. According to Emmanuel Tsesmelis, the coordinator of the Programme, many former NMS summer students have gone on to bright careers in science and they have often facilitated scientific collaborations between CERN and their countries.
. The organizational support is very important for the smooth flow of the programme, as we have to be always there to answer students’ questions. Thanks to the invaluable help and support of Anca Burghart, Natalia Trajdos, the PH Secretariat and the HR Team - these administrative issues are settled successfully.
Some of NMS nationals have never left their countries before and Europe is a new, challenging cultural experience to them. Sometimes it’s not easy to adjust to a different lifestyle, languages and not to mention day-to-day habits –it’s a great school of life.
The first students arrive at the beginning of June. It’s gratifying to see the smile on their faces when they arrive at CERN. The Summer Students team meets and greets the students; they are invited to participate in a brief induction session, where they can find out more about the Programme and how to make the best out of it.
The Summer Student Programme is very dynamic – there is so much going on! Especially because we have more and more students every year – and we’re trying to diverse their activities as much as possible and facilitate their stay in the area.According to the survey conducted by Alexandra Lauren Day, an American Trainee, 83 % of the students who participated in the programme between 2005 and 2013 agreed that this summer training helped them to develop their skills as a scientist or engineer, and for 81 % of them it inspired their further education.
To sum up, let’s quote the Ukrainian Summer Student at CERN in 2013 - ‘That was a great program! I wish I could scroll time back and participate once more. That time was the most exciting period of my life and I feel very proud of being a part of this institution’.
