Meeting New People in New Places!

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  • “Hi! Do you want to trade pins?”
  • “What’s your name?”
  • “Where are you from?” “Oh wow Ohio? That’s so cool!”
  • “What category are you in” “Me too!”
  • “ISEF right?”
  • “What’s your insta?”
  • “Good luck!”
  • “It was so nice meeting you! See you :)”

This, I feel, is a rather exhaustive list of the most common conversation starters I’ve used and received at ISEF. Except this surface-level conversation is really as far as it goes… You would think that at the biggest and most prestigious pre-collegiate science fair that people would have more innovative, unique ways of introducing themselves and making new friends at mixers. But what a pleasant surprise it was to see that most people were, well, normal. Many of the world’s finest future cancer-curers, doctors, entrepreneurs, professors, and innovators I’m meeting are just starting off as wide-eyed high school researchers looking to share their projects with the world and earn a little cash while they’re at it. Even those I’ve met who’ve earned the title of STS Finalist that I so coveted just a few months ago are surprisingly laidback and easy to talk to. In fact, I would say that they’re among the people I clicked with the most this week.

I wonder how things will be like at networking events and research conferences I attend in the future.