Odessa High School juniors Branner Marroquim, Daniel Carlos, Richie Valderaz and Savion Juarez are taking the first steps toward advancing their future STEM careers by participating in NASA’s Texas High School Aerospace Scholars program. The opportunity was organized by instructional facilitator Sonny Alaniz.
Now in his second year of education, Alaniz, currently studying at Odessa College, plans to pursue a degree in nuclear engineering with the goal of becoming a research and development engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He teaches engineering and robotics.
The NASA program has already begun online.
According to the NASA website, “Texas High School Aerospace Scholars is an authentic STEM learning experience for Texas high school juniors to engage with NASA’s missions and become the next generation of explorers. HAS is a year-long commitment for Texas high school juniors which starts in the fall with a five-month online learning experience related to space exploration, Earth science, technology, and aeronautics. The highest achieving students will receive an invitation to a five-day virtual summer experience (Moonshot) mentored by NASA scientists and engineers. The top performing teams from Moonshot will be invited to an all expense paid residential experience to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.”
When he found out his students had gotten into the program, on a scale of 1 to 10, he was at level 9 in terms of excitement.
“I was kind of worried, too, because I didn’t know how many students were going to get accepted into it and the more I started hearing hey, I got an email; hey I got an email … I started to see the students and I was like oh, man this is becoming a reality for me and I think it got boosted up to a number 10 once I got to see how much work they’re going to do,” Alaniz said.
He added that he knows it’s a long journey, not just for the students, but for him to prepare them for the experience.
Alaniz said there were seven or eight students who completed applications from OHS. He added that they are going to reapply at the end of November or early December because he wants students to have a chance at summer internships.
All of the students were interested in STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering and math.
Carlos said he is grateful for the opportunity, but it’s also a challenge because it’s a NASA internship and “they’re kind of a big deal.”
Valderaz said it’s intimidating, but at the same time, it’s a chance to get into a growing field.
“I know my generation is the generation that will take people to other planets,” Valderaz said.
Juarez said the opportunity is cool because it’s an experience that most other high school students might not even think about.
“It will put me ahead of the curve when it comes to applying to colleges and actually finding a good job,” Juarez added.
Valderaz said it was always a joke in his family that he would become a rocket scientist.
“I’ve been really great with math, so it’s always kind of been a joke, but it might be a reality someday,” he added.
Carlos said he thinks he will go into civil or architectural engineering, so NASA never really crossed his mind. But getting into the program makes him think he could go into aerospace engineering.
Juarez said he also was looking at things closer to Earth like mechanical and electrical engineering.
“I just kind of want to test the waters with this, see what type of opportunities it brings up,” he added.
Alaniz said the first part of the course is the five-month online class where they focus on individual training and skill development. The students are on different teams, but Alaniz will be helping them in class.
The second part is a one-week virtual tour and experience with the groups where they will be competing with each other to create projects and see if they could be potentially used for the Artemis program, a Moon exploration program.
In the third part, if their team is successful they will be taken on an in-person tour with some of the NASA scientists and engineers that they were being mentored by during the program.
“A lot of them are in my engineering and robotics classes. We’re trying to substitute the class for the NASA internship and create (our) own curriculum for it, so that in case future students” can have a class dedicated to it, Alaniz said. It will also show up on their high school transcript.
The program is specifically designed for juniors and prepares them to be senior mentors.
“Since they’re already getting close to the end of high school and the beginning of college, this will be a good stepping stone in the right direction toward a STEM career field, regardless of whatever they want to do, whether it’s aerospace, mechanical or electrical,” Alaniz said.
Students need a 3.0 GPA at minimum, but Alaniz said these students are “really exceptional, and they go above and beyond.
“Even if they don’t have the highest GPA … NASA likes to look for students who are looking for opportunity and well driven in extracurricular activities,” Alaniz said.
Sandra Lopez, who is Valderaz’s mother and a teacher at OHS, said Alaniz is a great teacher who goes the extra mile for his students.
“He’s doing very well in school, and he wants to do better,” Lopez said of her son, “but just having a teacher show that kind of interest in students is a really big deal. Not all the teachers are like that, and I really appreciate him. He’s gone above and beyond. I mean, not just for these four, but for a lot of the other students. So I appreciate that for him, from him a lot. He’s a young teacher, but he doesn’t act like it. … But just from a fellow teacher and a parent … I really appreciate him.”
