Organizing a Nation-Wide Astronomy Olympiad
By Benjamin Pinto ‘25Every year, the Chilean Society of Astronomy organizes a nation-wide astronomy olympiad. After my participation in 2018, I co-founded a preparation program to help in the efforts. In 2021, we were asked to join the organizing committee of the event, and we have been making the biggest Spanish and open-source astronomical library since.
This year, the efforts were focused on digitalizing a complete introductory astronomy course for all students in Latin America, as well as generating new didactic material to ease the understanding of gravitational mechanics and observational astronomy. I was also tasked with teaching the gravity and light axes of the course over the span of 6 weeks. Everything had to be done online due to distance constrains in Chile.
The internship was an amazing opportunity to reconnect with a project I have been working since high-school, giving me the time and resources to make it transcend past my involvement in it. On top of that, I had the chance to teach students on an event that had change my life in the past, and we were invited to present at the National Congress of Education about all we had done so far.
My favorite part was undoubtedly the award ceremony, where I saw a student's reaction when he had been selected to represent Chile abroad, throwing me back to the time I was in his shoes and had the exact same anxiety-into-excitement reaction.
This internship was funded by the Richard G. D'Auteuil '82 and Kimberly A. Labbe '82 Internship Fund.