“Space is something that has fascinated me since kindergarten,” says Junior Aidan Messick. This past August Aidan joined other top students from across the state at the Virginia Space Coast Scholars program at Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore. Program participants get to learn first-hand from NASA professionals about the latest cutting-edge technologies and missions. 

 

“About this time last year I started to think about what I wanted to do in college and in life, and engineering was something that I started to seriously consider,” Aidan says.  Mr. Roy, Aidan’s chemistry teacher from last year, suggested the program as a way to further explore engineering. “I was interested right away because NASA is somewhere I’ve considered working in the future,” Aidan says.

 

The program features two key elements—a dynamic online science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning experience with five modules and the seven-day residential Summer Academy at Wallops Island. NASA invites only a select few who perform well on the learning modules to attend the Summer Academy.

 

Program leaders split the students into four groups, where each group was challenged to design a mission. Aidan’s group, the commercial re-supply group, planned a mission into space using the Antares rocket.

 

“We spent the first part of the week designing our mission, and it was a little nerve-wracking but a lot of fun to present what we came up with to NASA staff,” says Aidan. “My group still feels connected after this experience—it was amazing.”

 

This fall Aidan is applying to NASA’s Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) program, another program of the Virginia Space Grant Coalition. Like Space Coast Scholars, VASTS includes online courses that qualify students for the Summer Academy. Selected scholars will attend the seven-day program at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA.