Physics majors Samantha Adams and Oliver Carey demonstrate how integral individuality is in the realm of liberal arts despite their similar academic tracks. Adams, a junior on a five-year track, and Carey, a junior graduating in 2023, are both Physics majors in URI’s College of Arts & Sciences (A&S) focused on astronomy research, interning at the UMass-URI Research Consortium, will soon be studying abroad, and plan to pursue advanced degrees in their field to continue their research careers. Yet, as Adams points out, “You’d think we’d be really similar, but we’re very unique.” She continues, “Both Oliver and I have been able to spread our wings outside of the physics department one way or another.” Their stories illustrate the unique benefit in pursuing a liberal arts education, which is the ability to combine disciplines for both a well-rounded and individualized education. In other words, you can find your niche without having to put yourself in a box.
Adams is double majoring in physics and German, and Carey is majoring in physics and minoring in molecular biology. Through A&S, these students have found individuality in their research opportunities as well. At the UMass-URI Research Consortium, their research broadly pertains to radio astronomy. However, Adams found her niche in creating images of sources using radio data while Carey found his looking more specifically at the jets and X-Ray emissions produced by those sources. Overall, their work mutually seeks to advance astronomy research so that other researchers can draw their own conclusions as well as to make the “pretty pictures” of the sky that are broadly distributed to the public for astronomy education. Both Carey and Adams found that this internship benefitted them greatly in opening more doors of opportunity to them.
This summer, Carey looks forward to studying abroad at the Sfienza University of Rome in Italy, and Adams will be headed to Germany as part of the International Engineering Program this upcoming Fall. Additionally, Adams will be working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory this summer as an intern with support from the A&S internship fund. Excitedly, she says, “They run the telescopes that I get my data from. The person is known as who you talk to if you’re doing radio astronomy.” She continues, “I wouldn’t be able to do research and get that if I didn’t have the research experience and help from my advisors here at URI.”
Carey also credits his education in A&S as being well-rounded and subsequently pivotal to his opportunities. He tells broadly of his learning experience, “Putting things into historical context to be able to work with them now is super important.” Furthermore, he feels he is able to “really make the most of what we’re doing and what we want to do in our future.” Although that future is somewhat uncertain, Carey, like Adams, is certain he wants to pursue graduate programs for either physics or astronomy. Carey has also considered working in industry, such as for NASA or SpaceX, and Adams is considering teaching as a professor eventually. Carey closes insightfully, “Coming back together every year and having classes has made it feel like it’s completely okay that we’re on different paths and working and trying really hard to get there.” With their broad yet specific backgrounds, they are well prepared to take on whatever challenges they choose to pursue.
~By Sabrinna Fogarty ’22