 bright young minds, curious and crowing. Young adults with the ability to comprehend complex problems and solve them with innovative ideas. These students each possess unique talents that have cultivated will someday change the face of the future. Answering a need to ensure that these students go on to success is NASA's Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program. The program is an opportunity attracting young achievers with an interest in science and engineering. Founded in 1979 as a program designed to attract and serve underrepresented minorities, the SHARP program is helping to produce many scientists, engineers and technicians who will someday work for NASA or private industry. SHARP students are getting the opportunity to focus in. Focus in on how you might use science and math. And I really see that after they spend a few weeks, really eight weeks rubbing elbows with engineers, they begin to see what it's like to be an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, an aerospace engineer. They're really nuts and bolts of it. And it helps them focus in a little bit more in terms of seeing how they might one day be in that same position. I like working with young people. They're exciting. They're full of energy. They're full of enthusiasm. These young people have the energy to burn. And they want to be an exciting place and reach out and really see that they can make a contribution. In the program, students are exposed to a scientific and technical work environment. Through interaction with NASA mentors, they receive an insight into possible career opportunities. They're here eight weeks to work directly with the engineers in the technical field and to basically not only learn some specific technical duties, but to understand what engineering is all about in a general sense. As a mentor, I work with the students and try to encourage them into engineering or the science and technology field. I also try to get them to interact with the other engineers in my section. Programs like this get people exposed to the real world, to the process of learning on a job which they're going to have whether they're in school or at work. Given real-world tasks and problems to solve, these enthusiastic youth put their energy to work, pushing the limits to come up with workable answers, solutions that will actually be used because the projects that they work on are real projects. I try to give them challenging projects, usually projects that are above their head a little. That makes them try a little harder. And I think they really get a lot out of it. The SHARP program takes place at most NASA facilities. At Kennedy Space Center, students learn about tests, checkout and launch of space vehicles. Across the country at Ames Research Center, projects concentrate on computer science for flight research and simulation. At Langley in Hampton, Virginia, the focus is on research and development of advanced air and spacecraft systems. The Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program is a major commitment by NASA. Its purpose is to make minority students aware of career opportunities and to encourage them to attain higher education. It's been one thrilling 11-year span. I have seen more than 190 kids come through the program, receive tremendous benefits from the program. As a matter of fact, more than 98% of those students who've entered the program have gone on into science, math, high tech type careers. Students demonstrating an interest in these fields participate in projects that are as diverse as the NASA centers. In the SHARP program, I'm learning how to run the diagnostic tests on the experimental computer, which simulates what the space load experiments will be experiencing during the space missions up in space. It's very educational. It's an experience I would have never had and I'm fortunate to be here. So far in the SHARP program, I've been working with test carriage with test aircraft tires for jet planes and tests to see when they land, how much wear there is. How much wear there is on the tire after every run. I've learned about a lot of different areas of engineering that I don't think I ever would have learned about. I've been working with the computer simulation and software simulation of the F-18, so I spend a lot of time on there and then different programs are used to evaluate the data and getting out of the simulation. There is a lot of learning involved. There's a lot of learning and a lot of hands-on experience and those are two real benefits of the program. In my area, we're working on the PFMA, which is the prototype flight manipulator. And I'm tele-operating the PFMA. When I first came here on the first day I went to this meeting, it was like I was flooded with all this information and I could barely pick out anything that they were saying. And the more that I read, the more I understood it. And then when I come down here and I actually work with the arm, then it all starts to fall in place and I actually understand a lot now. The value of the SHARP program cannot be underestimated. Of the more than 1,200 apprentices who have participated since 1979, many have gone on to become engineers and scientists for NASA and private industry. It is important to recognize that as we move toward the future, the numbers of young people available to fill important research positions is shrinking. A strong effort must be made to capture the talent of these youth. SHARP is playing an important role in directing underrepresented minorities into an area we must be concerned about as a nation. It can become even more. If our country is to be strong in science and engineering, it will take the students of today to do it. And without a doubt they're going to be our future and we'd like them to be our future engineers, constructive in developing and building our country that we can confront the year 2000, we can confront the future. And that may also mean not only on this planet, but out in further outreaches and outposts in space. SHARP is a success and is a model for other programs to follow. For without opportunity, there can be no future.