NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Tennessee State University students learned about opportunities with NASA when Kennedy Space Center engineers visited the campus on Jan. 28.
The engineers provided an informal student Q&A in the Forum of the university’s Floyd Payne Campus Center, and discussed the agency’s Artemis mission and internship opportunities.
“With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before,” according to the agency’s website.
Stacie Turner is a NASA engineer, as well as a strategy and collaboration manager with the agency. She said it’s important for young people, especially minorities, to know about the opportunities that are available.
“We think that they are going to be the folks that are going to take over and do the exploring, and the development of all of NASA’s new technology,” said Turner.
TSU senior Tahmadiyya Dawson of Little Rock, Arkansas, said talking to the engineers and learning about the Artemis mission was inspiring.
“This has been very beneficial,” said Dawson, who plans to graduate in May with a degree in chemistry. “They have tons of opportunities. So it makes me happy to know that I can have a job once I graduate.”
Antoinette Hargrove Duke, associate director of TSU’s Career Development Center, said the NASA engineers are aware of the talent TSU has to offer.
“They say in 2024 they want to have a female on the moon, and we hope it will be someone from here,” said Duke.
Last year, more than 200 students in grades K-8 from Davidson County and surrounding areas took part in a NASA-funded, one-day STEM education workshop at Tennessee State University.
Called “Dare to Dream STEM Saturday,” the workshop engaged students in scientific experiments, and engineering design processes, such as robotics, coding, drones, virtual reality, flight simulation and math games.
The TSU College of Education, in partnership with Metro Nashville Public Schools, hosted the workshop under the Minority University Research Education Project, or MUREP, a NASA program at the university.
For more information about the Tennessee Minority University Research and Education Project at TSU, visit http://www.tnstate.edu/murep/about.aspx.
To learn more about NASA’s Artemis program, visit https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/.
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Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a premier, historically black university and land-grant institution offering 39 bachelor’s degree programs, 24 master’s degree programs, and seven doctoral degrees. TSU is a comprehensive research intensive institution with a R-2 Carnegie designation, and has a graduate school on its downtown Avon Williams Campus, along with the Otis Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville, Tennessee. With a commitment to excellence, Tennessee State University provides students with a quality education in a nurturing and innovative environment that prepares them as alumni to be global leaders in every facet of society. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.