Rilka Spieler
New York, New York
Spieler was a senior planetarium intern for the American Museum of Natural History for two years.
Spieler’s interest in science was piqued at an early age, when she went to NASA’s Space Camp for the first time in fourth grade. There, she was able to talk to Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, and even experience zero gravity. “It was basically the greatest thing I’ve ever done, besides going to Space Camp the second time!” says Spieler.
She started at the American Museum of Natural History in 2007, working as a counselor in the Museum’s astrophysics and robotics summer camp. At the end of the summer, she was asked to stay on as an intern. Spieler’s museum internship focused on public education at the planetarium. “Astrophysical concepts are sometimes difficult to convey, and we had three interactive carts that explained them,” she says. “The experiments included vacuums; bending light with prisms; and chemical beads that reacted to ultraviolet light.”
Spieler also taught and mentored the Museum’s upcoming interns. “People who are ambitious enough to work at the Museum usually spend all their time in science classes and want to go to big universities,” she says. “They’re very intense. [However] I’m at a liberal arts college for a reason. Even if people don’t do science all the time, they still care and still want to learn. I think there’s a lot of merit in teaching others about science, because you need to know it to understand how the world works.”