Johnson Space Center Internship Starts!

15 June 2010.

I started my internship at Johnson Space Center on Monday! My mentor seems extremely nice and comfortable to work with, and my internship assignment seems provokingly challenging and stimulating. I still cannot believe I am interning at NASA. It seems (not to be cliche) surreal to actually be working at Johnson Space Center, THE Houston. THE Houston of Mission Control and astronaut training. I haven't seen too much around the whole base yet, but what I have seen is impressive. The next 8 weeks? Bliss.

I started out as a participant in the Online Learning Community of the NASA INSPIRE program, which stands for Interdisciplinary National Science Program Incorporating Research and Education. It's a NASA program for high school students interested in NASA or aerospace, or the STEM areas in general (science, technology, engineering, math). Then those in the Online Learning Community were given the opportunity to apply for a summer experience. Depending on the grade, these include college classes, facility visits, and paid internships. Though really, we'd all known about the summer opportunities, and that's why we'd even applied for the Online Learning Community anyway. It was a long application process, and then after a phone interview, I was elated a few days later to read the email saying I'd been accepted. At Johnson Space Center, they picked 6 interns out of 108 applicants, so I was pretty stoked.

Now, after all that waiting and anticipation, I am finally here. They told us not to ask for autographs from the astronauts when we're eating lunch at the cafeteria, but I mean, if he/she doesn't seem to be too preoccupied... My first two days of work were fabulous, and I can't wait to go again tomorrow. I am so excited for these 8 weeks: for my job and my assignment, how much I'll learn, and also? Also the plethora of networking opportunities there seem. I feel like I can truly lay out the basic foundation for my whole future here at JSC. I can meet other college interns, other mentors, so many people in NASA, so many possibilities. Hopefully I'll come out in August with security of future internships and career paths I could take. I love aerospace, and these last two days have only made stronger my conviction to go into the field. The people I can meet, and amount I can learn... the networking seems endless. After all, if you're working in the same building as the Johnson Space Center Flight Director, anything could happen...

I guess some slogans are just too fitting to be ignored.
Impossible is nothing.
So inspirational. Who knows? But for the moment, everything is just so phenomenal and mind-blowing, and I cannot wait for work tomorrow.

Hopefully I can add some pictures later...