Juniors chosen for HAS

Written by: Vicky Camarillo on January 7, 2010 at 12:35 pm

Juniors Kaitlyn Rendon and Chris Carter have been selected to participate in the High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) program this year.

“It’s a program through NASA. What you get to do is participate with other Texas high school juniors, and you solve math problems and write essays and sometimes draw graphics,” HAS instructor Robyn Segrest said. “You have an assignment due every two weeks, and they grade them. The first assignment is due Dec. 20, and this goes on until the middle of April.”

Segrest said that in April, every student involved in the program is ranked, and based on the students’ ranking, a certain number earns an all expenses paid trip to NASA in the summer.

“Last year they took the top 350 out of 790 students who participated,” she said. “When you’re there, you get to participate with other students who have also been selected for the week-long program, and our guys last year did things like build rockets and launch them. Then, because of the requirements that all of this fulfills, you get the opportunity to earn a science credit from the school if you pass the program.”

Rendon said she decided to apply for the program because of the opportunities HAS provides.

“I entered the Robotics team here, and Mrs. Segrest was talking about it and got me interested in it because it has a lot of opportunities and it deals with mechanical engineering,” she said. “I want to be a mechanical engineer, and the program could teach me the kind of things I have to do for that.”

Carter also said the program could help him with his career of choice, among other things.

“I want to pursue computer technology and electrical engineering, so of course HAS could be a big help to me,” he said. “But I could also learn to be able to work better with others. That seems to be my problem.”

However, Segrest said the learning opportunities are not the only good things about HAS.

“Our kids who participated last year, on top of receiving an extra science credit, the experience they took away from it was phenomenal,” she said. “The friendships they took out of it were incredible, and it’s caused one of them to change his major to aeronautical engineering.”

That student, senior Jeffin James, is one of last year’s four students to earn the trip to NASA.

“It was a learning experience for me,” he said. “It was something I’d never done before, something I thought I wouldn’t be interested in, but I enjoyed it very much. That program changed my life more than I could imagine.”

Additionally, Career and Technology director Stephen Rhodes said students who make it through the second level of the program are eligible for a paid internship the summer after their senior year.

“They actually become the team leaders for the folks that are coming in,” he said. “It’s a paid position if you stay two years and are successful.”

James said he was chosen to be an intern this summer.

“I’m looking forward to it because it will give me a firsthand look at what NASA actually is before I start college,” he said. “I think it will be a great experience for me because it’ll help me learn more about my major.”