Texas High School Students Spend A Week Immersed In Space Technology

The High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston closes this week with a special ceremony that will highlight this summer's group of students and celebrate the achievements of the last 10 years.

The ceremony will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Friday, August 14, at the JSC Gilruth Center. Students, parents, legislators and JSC guests will attend. Students will discuss how their team accomplished their mission to Mars and receive certificates of completion.

Senator Mike Jackson, Representatives John Davis, Ken Legler, and Larry Taylor, Former Center Director George Abbey, Dr. William Staples, Dr. Marie Dalton and Dr. James Horton will attend the ceremony to congratulate the students and to commemorate HAS's 10th anniversary. 

This summer, 355 students earned the opportunity to come to JSC for a week long experience to work on a team project in Mars exploration. The students were nominated by their state legislators to participate. 

"Seeing the vision become a reality and using human spaceflight as the inspiration for these students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematic degrees and careers is very exciting and rewarding," said Linda Smith, Education Specialist and Texas Aerospace Scholars Program manager for NASA. 

Since its inception, the program has attracted students representing the state's social and ethnic diversity. To date, 4,800 students have been nominated by their legislators and 2,450 have participated. 

HAS started in 1999, and was created through a partnership with the State of Texas and JSC. It's only open to Texas residents and all students must be U.S. citizens in their junior year of high school with an interest in STEM related fields. HAS is under the umbrella of Texas Aerospace Scholars (TAS) and was the impetus for Middle School Aerospace Scholars (MAS) and Community College Aerospace Scholars (CAS),with both programs supporting the goal of an increased technical workforce in the State. In 2006 the TAS Internship program began and offers the opportunity for HAS and CAS alumni to compete for technical internships here at JSC.

FMI: http://aerospacescholars.jsc.nasa.gov