Rachel Nere

As a child, I was always curious about everything like any child is. I wondered about the world and what would go on around it. But one day at night when I was six, I looked up into the night sky and thought to myself, “This is natural and untouched, the one thing people can’t change.” I continued to stare and then thought, “I wonder what makes the universe tick?” As I got older I thought of the universe as art on a canvas. I didn’t know it yet but that moment shaped my life forever. As time went on, it branched off into my love for physics and STEM. This opportunity as a Latino Initiative Intern at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian has given me the chance to finally explore the love that ignited this scientific journey. It has reminded me of why I fell in love with the subject in the first place. It blossoms and cultivates curiosity as we are a part of a mystery that is beyond our imaginations, while we continue to understand and learn it.

June 2021