As a child, I would often stare out my window into the night sky when I couldn’t fall asleep. I was fascinated by NASA images of beautiful galaxies and nebulas and wondered how all of that could exist beyond our planet.
My parents took my siblings and me to see Interstellar when I was 9 years old. That night, I remember trying to understand what I had seen. It was a life changing event. I will always remember seeing the stars in the parking lot on the way home standing out, a little more brightly than I’d noticed before.
In middle school, I participated in the Student Astronaut Challenge, a state-wide competition at the Kennedy Space Center that centered on teaching students about design, engineering, landing, and space flight simulation. Experiences like these grew my interest in becoming an astronaut.
During my junior year of high school, I took two astronomy classes and became the principal investigator for a class project with three friends. Independent research taught me that astronauts often experience immune system disruptions and develop cancers upon returning to Earth. We decided to study the effects of microgravity on phagocytic function (when organisms engulf food using their bodies) in monocytes, a type of white blood cell.
I also took my first serious physics class and began volunteering at a local fabrication laboratory. It was there that I began to develop a love for problem-solving and design.
All of these events helped me realize that I want to study engineering to improve spaceship designs and create better environments for astronauts through integration with space medicine. I would also like to help construct deep-space habitats for long-term space exploration and pioneer construction on space settlement concepts such as the O’Neill Cylinder.
I am currently a freshman at Georgia Tech and a student program officer for SolaMed Solutions trying to pursue these goals. I look forward to helping improve the human condition and advance humanity beyond the confines of our atmosphere.
