This episode, we interview student Natasha Waldorf—she’s a senior majoring in physics and applied computer science at Whittier College, a small liberal arts college near Los Angeles. Due to the challenges of COVID lockdowns during her late high school and early college years, Natasha found online education made applying to internships and gaining research experience difficult; but Natasha made the best of her circumstances by working at a county park nature center in southeastern Pennsylvania learning about hiking trail maintenance and reptile husbandry. Though this may not seem relevant at first to Physics or computer science, the experience helped her to discover a love for the outdoors while developing her work ethic. Since then, she has gone on to intern at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Small Satellite Portfolio in Albuquerque, NM as well as Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, FL where she created tools for modeling sensor coverage and performance. Natasha reminds us that pursuing interests that may not always be specific “resume builders” can actually help set you apart in unexpected ways