 This is a wave. This is a wave. Let's start over with that. Wave from Georgia Tech. It's amazing to see all nine QF sites participating in this great conference. Okay. So we here in San Antonio, we're going to take about five minutes to reset the stage to get ready for Ginger Carrick's keynote address. So please join us now on www.NowCastSA.com and click on the webcast link that should be right in the middle of the homepage. So everybody switch over to NowCastSA.com, all right? Test, test. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon and welcome to the 2016 Women in Physics keynote address. My name is Marilyn Moore, senior physics undergraduate at UTSA, and I will be introducing Ms. Ginger Carrick. As you all may know, Ms. Carrick is a native Texan. She began working for NASA as a summer intern in 1991 and earned her master's in physics in 1993. In 94, she received a permanent assignment at the NASA Johnson Space Center as a materials research engineer, followed by another assignment a year later as a missions operations directorate and an instructor for the International Space Station environmental and life support system, training crew and flight controllers in a wide range of developmental aspects. In 2005, Ms. Carrick was named a flight director and is currently assistant director for the International Space Station for the Flight Operations Directorate. She was named a distinguished alum by Texas Tech University and by the Texas Tech Alumni Association in both 2004 and 2012. In just a moment, I'll hand it over to Ms. Carrick, but first I want to explain a bit about the question and answer session that will follow her remarks. We have already collected questions from the conference sites. In addition, please send your questions now and during the talk to questionsforgingeratgmail.com. That's questionsforgingeratgmail.com. We'll get to as many of them as we can. And with that, Ms. Carrick, take it away. Thank you very much. I am not a stand-behind-the-podium kind of girl, so I will be out here front and center and hopefully for those of you watching online, you can still see me and hear me. The other thing you should know is I never know exactly what I'm going to say. So that's good for you in that when we get to the question and answer session, don't ask if you don't really want to know. But I'm very pleased to be able to finally make it here. I have been asked to come and do the keynote speech for the last four years and every year I run the Houston Half Marathon the day after. So they were able to accommodate me this year by changing the proposed time. And so as soon as we're done here, I'll be catching a flight back home, car bloating, going to bed so I can run the Houston Half Marathon tomorrow. But what I would like to share with you today, I want to tell you my story because I think you will find that there are parallels you can draw to your own life, challenges that you have faced, situations that you're placed in, and hopefully me telling you how I did it will either give you some suggestions on how to do it or how not to do it, depending upon which part of my life story we're talking about here. So it all started way back when in El Paso, Texas. And my dad was from Owensboro, Kentucky, you got to say it that way. And my mom was from Delicias Chihuahua. So I'm what you get with that combo. When I was five years old, I remember going to the library checking out a book and coming home and telling my mom, I know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I either want to be a professional basketball player or I want to be an astronaut. So my mom, very serious, very thoughtful forward thinking planning woman, said, all right, either one of those jobs, you're going to have to go to college. And when I'm five years old, I'm like, okay, college. But I knew that I had to do that, so that was already a word in my head. And she said, to go to college, it's going to take money. I'm like, all right, money, I don't know much about that at five, but okay, mom. She said, you're in luck because your dad here has a really great job. He worked at an ice cream plant. How do you not have a good child when your dad works at an ice cream plant? But he had a very good job. He was a manager there. And so she said, we'll start saving for college now that we know what your goals are, little one. My mom was a stay at home mom. She had a job of raising four kids. But he was our bread and butter, and that's what we were going to count on. So now I thought, all right, got to go to college, got to have money. And I should probably study math and science. So my mom was very helpful with that in my elementary school. Back when I was going to elementary school, we didn't have honors classes, stuff like that. But she went and talked to my teachers and said, hey, she's special, okay? So when she gets bored in your class, she's going to act up and I need you to do something with her. So I had teachers that would take me off to the side and I learned how to do cryptograms. Those are great puzzles. I had another lady that would let me do puzzles. And then as my special treat for getting good grades, my mom would take me to Walgreens. And at Walgreens, they had these magazines where you could do math for first grade, for second grade, for third grade. You know, I'm talking about math and science. And so I would get there, get my little treat, go home, do my math book. When I finished, I could go on to the second grade book and the third grade book. So I got way, way, way ahead and I thought it was fun. So did that and then she says, well, you got it. If you want to be a professional basketball player, we're going to need to get you into a basketball league somewhere. So we went to the YMCA and they didn't have any girls leagues. So mom talks to the coaches of the guys league and say, hey, she's special. So we went in and I joined the boys league when I was in the fourth grade. It caused a little concern one day when I got home from practice and my dad said, how was practice? And I said, it was great. We scrimmaged, we played shirts and skins. And he asked me what team I was on and I said shirts this time. So mom started going to practice with me and make sure everything was okay. But so I continued on through elementary school. I get into the seventh grade. I try out for the basketball team and I make it. So I am excited. I come home for lunch that day and my dad was home. Had lunch with him, he went to work. That afternoon, my mom picked me up from school. We went to his job because we were going to pick up the paycheck. We used to do that every Friday. And my dad was having a heart attack in his office, live. I am 11 years old, walk into my dad's office and he is in his chair, flopping back and forth. He's lost control of all bodily functions. And I freeze in a position and my life changed. And I was daddy's little girl. He taught me, I didn't know it was physics at the time, but he taught me how to throw the football and do this with your hand so that it goes off in a spiral. He taught me follow through on my basketball shot. He taught me not to pick up lizards by the tail. So when I'm watching this go down, I didn't know how I was going to get through the next day or the day after that. And I certainly wasn't thinking about being an astronaut or being a professional basketball player. But my mom, the blessing that she is, picked herself up. And she says, all right, we got to move forward. I'm going to go get a job at your junior high school. So I can watch you, keep an eye on you. In the attendance office, I'll all place it. Now I'm held hostage in class, can't go anywhere. But no, so she got a job there. And she says, I need you to look at my bank account. This is what your dad was making. This is what I was making. So that whole college fund, not going to happen. So we got to come up with an alternative. So at 11 years old, my mom introduces me to the concept of scholarships. And she says, hey, if you do really well in school and you do really well in sports, someone that you don't know will give you money. And I thought, wow, this is a bonus. I like this. OK. So we actually checked out a book. There was no internet back there. Yes, I'm old. But we checked out a book of all these scholarships that I reached so she could let me see what grade point average you would need to have and stuff like that. So I had a pretty good idea in the seventh grade of what was available. And then she went a step further. So she says, I'm going to need your help. I can't run this whole house by myself. I'm going to put you as a signature authority on my checking account. And I want you to pay the household bills. 11. So OK. So I got all the bills. I paid the gas bill, the electric bill, the house bill, the insurance bill, the car bill, the car insurance bill. Balance the checkbook because I like math. And I'd say, oh, wow, mom, we only have $40 left. And so let me go clip some coupons. So I'm clipping coupons. I'm checking out who has triple coupon day. We go buy this here, wind up getting it for free. Then recycling, doing all kinds of stuff to balance the books and make sure that our household had enough money because that was my job. So I thought that was a wonderful thing for her to do because by the time I got to college and got those scholarships, I'm still stingy now. I'm saving because that's what my mom said to do. So it was a very good way of making sure that I had the skill set that I needed to survive in the world. So then I go to high school. And I'm excited. It's my first day. I'm a freshman. I'm 13 years old. I walk into my honors physical science class because they finally started having honors classes. I go in, I sit down in the front row. Teacher comes in. Well, actually, I sit down in the front row. There's boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy. You get the picture. Teacher comes in, stands right in front of my desk, looks at me and says, what are you doing here? And I said, I'm here for honors physical science, sir. And he says, I don't teach girls. Girls aren't in my class. I am 13. So he says, girls aren't in my class. Well, they are now. So he and I went at it the whole semester. It was an adventure. There's all kinds of things that happened. In the end, I wound up getting an A in his class. He wound up getting called into the principal's office. With a variety of other high-ranking administrative officials, where I went forward with a 40-page detailed, statistically significant amount of data report about all the bad things he said during that semester. So it went well for me. But that man is the reason I chose physics as a major, which is probably a really stupid reason to choose. I should have done a little bit more research. So don't follow that example. But it sure felt good years later when I got a copy of my diploma and put it in the mail and emailed it to him like the biggest chest bump ever. Take that. So I survived my freshman year. In high school, I played basketball. I played volleyball. I did a little bit of track. Realized that that's not for me. Very slow, very, very slow. And I tried out for the boys baseball team, because we didn't have a softball team. And I did not want to be deprived. I made the boys baseball team. And then I decided, man, I don't really want to do that. Just want to see if I could. And took all my honors classes. I graduated second in my class of about 600. And I was named El Paso's female athlete of the year for the whole city. So what my mom had instilled in me do well in these areas, I nailed it, except for second in my class. It was by 1 1,000th of a point. My only concession is it was another girl that was ahead of me. So I was like, OK, I can live with that. But so I graduate. I had applied for all these scholarships. I had a full ride five-year scholarship to University of Texas in Austin. And I wanted to go there, because back then, Jody Conrad was the coach of the basketball team. And in my little brain, I thought, OK, I'll major in physics, and I'll try out for the team, and I'll be on TV, and it'll be awesome. But three days before I was supposed to go, I got so scared. And I talked to my mom, and I'm like, look, you have done an excellent job keeping me in line, and perhaps maybe too good of a job, because I am scared to death to leave this town and go to UT Austin. I'm going to screw it up. I'm going to find this place they call 6th Street and lose my mind. And she was like, honey, just trust yourself. And I felt bad, because I'd gotten city-wide recognition. Ginger's supposed to go to UT Austin. And I thought I'd be letting everybody down. And she's like, don't worry about them. Don't worry about me. You worry about you. You feel uncomfortable? Do not do it. And I'm like, cool. So I turned that down. I went to UT. UT El Paso right down. And I wasn't allowed to live in the dorm, because mom's like, all right, you're going to stay at home. You're going to live at home, or we're going to get you easy when to this gradually. So I had a good time at UTEP. I walked on to the UTEP basketball team, made the team. Day before the first game, blow out my knee. And it was going to require serious reconstructive surgery if I ever wanted to keep playing. And I thought, man, you are slow already. Now you got a bum knee in your slow. Maybe you should just kind of forget about that one dream of playing in the NBA and go to your backup plan of being an astronaut. OK. So that didn't work. But I had a 4.0. So I was in a really good spot. I got to start after my freshman year, I wrote to NASA. And I said, hey, I'd like to get a co-op program going with you where I can go work and go to school. And they didn't have one at UTEP. And they would not establish one. At that particular time, I think there was some question about the accreditation of the physics department at UTEP. So the best recommendation they gave me was, why don't you go ahead and transfer schools? So I said, all right. So I decided to go to Texas Tech because I swear my dad went and my granddaddy. And I thought, this would be a great way to honor my dad. And they do have a program with NASA, so I'll check that box. And it's only six hours away from home in case things get weird and I need to come back. So I did that. And I left when I was 19, first time away from home. And I had a really good time. I hung out with my friends. And I did stuff that my mom and she actually might be tied in, so I'm not going to say. No. So I basically, I partied with my friends. I ditched some classes and got 2.7. So that was awesome. I have never been more ashamed than going in, when I had to go into the physics department, the chair of the physics department there, who had given me some scholarships, helped me get a part-time job so I could relocate and tell him why he should not kick me out of his department. And I just basically, I said, look, I'm 19 years old and I'm an idiot. How about that? I'm not going to do that again, because I need to get into NASA. And you know, in 2.7, NASA's not going to hire me. Are you nuts? So I did everything I could. I lost one of my scholarships, so I had to pick up another part-time job. I had three part-time jobs to put myself through school with a couple of scholarships. And then by the time I graduated, I had a 3.2. And that was good enough to get into NASA's intern program. Once I got to the intern program, I was able to convert it to a co-op program, which years later I was able to convert to a permanent assignment. So I finally make it to NASA. So one of the lessons learned here is to take a moment, pause, and celebrate last victories, because weird stuff is going to happen again. So I celebrated, and I'm like, all right, I'm a rock star. I'm going to be an astronaut. I'm going to go live on the space station. It's going to be awesome. When I was at NASA, minimum requirement was to work for one year. I had a master's degree already. Work for a year, and then you can apply. So I waited my one year. I marched my little application down to the astronaut selection office. A few months later, I get the call. Ms. Carrick, we had over 3,000 applicants. And this year, and we've selected 120 to interview, and you were one of the 120. So totally psyched. I'm 26 years old. I am this close to my goal. Go to the interviews. I did well on the psychological exams. They had a physical fitness test. They did well there. During the medical test, they did a scan of this area right here. Started with an ultrasound, went into an x-ray, and finally, they had to do a CT scan. When they put the CT scan results up on the board, I just started bawling. Six white dots on one side, seven white dots on other side. I had kidney stones. I had no idea I had kidney stones, because I'd never passed one. But there they were, bright and shiny for the world to see. What I also knew that year, lifetime disqualification from the astronaut selection process. It was a new medical ruling that they put in that year. So I am sitting there in the doctor's office, going, what in the heck? I have survived watching my dad die, tanking it in college, getting it back up, getting into NASA, which is an adventure in and of itself. And now I have kidney stones. And the hardest part was that there was nothing I could do. Before, I tanked my GPA, let me go get another job, get some money, do this, switch schools, do that. In this particular case, there was nothing I could do. And that did not sit well with me. I did ask, I'm like, hey, can my mom's got some kidneys? And what if we just did a swap and pretend none of this ever happened? But yeah, yeah, that's not going to work. So at that phase in my life, just in several other phases, I could have just given up and said, screw it. I don't know what I'm going to do. But I didn't. And I talked myself out of it. Because every day after that, I woke up thinking, oh my gosh, I do not want to work here at NASA and look at these astronauts every day and know that I should have been one of them. And it turns out the head of the astronaut selection office at the time helped me figure out a plan to get permanently reassigned to an area of NASA where I teach the astronauts. And at first, I thought, wow, that's stupid. I'll be standing next to these astronauts every day and torturing myself. And when you say these things, there's nothing wrong with talking out loud to yourself. When you say these things out loud to yourself, I thought, wow, what it was and how negative of me. And so I thought, all right, I'm going to twist this story. I'm going to sell myself the story that I can't go into space. But if I'm teaching these astronauts, then each one of these astronauts could take a little piece of me up with them to space. Yeah, that's sellable. So that's what I did. And every morning when I woke up crying or I didn't want to go to school, I sold the story to myself. And eventually, I didn't have to sell it anymore. Because you know what? It was fun. It was a lot of fun. So now I'm an astronaut instructor hanging out. These particular guys are the very first crew that flew onboard the International Space Station. I got to go. If they were doing training in Florida with the modules of the space station before we launched them, I was there with them in Florida. If they were in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, I was in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, looking at the Russian modules before they launched. So for four years, I went and trained with these guys, mostly in the US. But later on, I had to move to Russia because the space station was mostly Russian up at first. So four years of my life, I go to every single class with them. I get my astronaut training. And I really enjoyed it. It was a great time. I got to work with them when they launched as a Capcom. So after they launched, I came back to the US and was offered up a position in Mission Control that historically was only offered to astronauts. There had never been a non-astronaut person to do this job. This is the person in Mission Control that answers when the crew says, Houston, we have a problem. That's capsule communicator. And up until then, it only been astronauts because the astronauts only wanted to talk to people on the ground that had seen what they had seen, been where they had been. But now we're on the space station. No one's lived on the space station. This was the very first crew. And I was actually in a position where I knew more than some of the astronauts. So they thought they would give it a try. And I'm glad they did. It was awesome. It was like I got paid to talk to my friends all day. So we had a pretty good time. I did that for four years. And in Mission Control, the Capcom sits right next to the flight director and the flight director. How many of you have seen Apollo 13? All right. So Apollo 13, the dude with the vest and the buzz cut. Yeah, that's me. Only we're slightly more chic now than have better hair. But so I was, I got selected to be a flight director. No Capcom had ever been a flight director. And when I said I wanted to apply, people are like, oh no, you can't do that. But at this point, I was like, hey, who's gonna stop me? So I gave it a go and I got in in 2005 and oh my gosh, best job ever. I love it. I love being in charge. I love having that responsibility and that pressure and knowing that the next decision I make may impact the safety of our crew and the safety of our vehicle. I love that. So I did that job for eight years for both Space Station and our Blessed Shuttle. And then I wound up in, oh, then I wound up in management. So I would have done that job forever, but then my boss asked me to join his management team. And now I am a manager of all of the folks that work in mission control of the astronauts, anybody that supports the International Space Station and my organization I manage. So I'm actually going back to school now for business, which I wish I'd have done that. So there's a lesson learned for you if you have an opportunity to get your MBA along with your science degree later on when you get old and promoted to management, you might need that. But the one thing I do wanna point out is I'm telling you the story to keep it short I've been telling you things that I have done and I have done and I have done. I did not do any of this by myself. I've mentioned my mom, quite of it, who helped me, but I still talk to my fourth grade teacher because of the way she dealt with me and actually encouraged me to study math and science. I love that woman. And I keep in touch with her, I keep in touch with my chemistry teacher from high school, my physics professors. So along the way, make sure that you honor those folks that have thanked you, I mean, that have helped you so that they know what an important role that they played in your life. Also, I would encourage you guys to, as you move into your new careers, don't forget about what it felt like when you were in elementary school or junior high or high school or in college and give back and I love doing these types of talks. I wish I'd have had some people that helped me in that area or I'd gone to a conference like this. This is an amazing opportunity that you guys have. So pass it forward. But when you get a good job, come back and be a keynote speaker yourself. Then, as much fun as NASA is and I love my work there, you've got to have good work-life balance or you'll go nuts. So one of the things that I like to do is rescue dogs. So I work as a volunteer coordinator for a dog rescue, it's very therapeutic. And I also like to bake, okay? I always tell people, I do wedding cakes. I tie it in with a NASA theme. You like my little Orion vehicle, capturing an asteroid, Texas style. But I have a creative side to me, so this is my outlet. I like to tie it in to things at NASA to make them technically correct. If I do wedding cakes, I always tell people there's math behind my wedding cakes. You know, you're the drunkest person that your wedding can bump into the table and my stuff's gonna stay structurally sound. So you can tie all that stuff together. But all of my adventures so far, I have had, I've been blessed. I've had an opportunity to meet a lot of different people, famous people. I've had several awards. I was a billboard, I couldn't believe it. I was like, hey, where you get recognized. And I have also even had a street named after me. It all passed, so I tried to shimmy up the pole and take a picture, but I'm not, yeah. So all these great things have happened. But out of all those things, those are all gonna fade one day, probably except the street. But the most important thing is no matter what careers you go into, people you interact with, I think if you ask my friends or my family what's the one thing they know about me is I have a good time. I love my life. I love what I studied. I love what I do for a living. I love my family. I love all my activities. You wanna make sure that as you plot your course through life that you are choosing to do things that make you happy. And in the end, if it makes you happy, you're gonna be more effective. You'll be a more effective wife or girlfriend or worker or family member. It'll all be better as long as you're having a good time doing it. So throughout this talk, I'm gonna leave you with this slide. I like to tell the stories with hidden lessons behind them. And these are some of the key ones for me that if you wanna take these forward that I think will get you to where you wanna go. So I'd like to thank you for the opportunity for talking to you today. And then we will now swap over into the talk show portion of today's session. Without further ado, we'd like to begin the question and answer portion of the keynote address. Welcome, Ginger. Thank you. So what do you value most from your physics background and what skills have been most valuable in your career? And this is asked by Rebecca Grohlman from Oregon State. So I think the thing I value most is ability to think. Regardless, you're never gonna remember all the things you learn in quantum theory, but your professors are teaching you how to approach problems. And I think that's been valuable both in my work and in life in general. What was the second part? What skills have been most valuable in your career? I guess the same thing. The critical thinking skills have been the most valuable. In my job at NASA, we sometimes encounter things that folks have never seen before. And as long as you take a methodical approach, it is imperative that you take a methodical approach to making sure that you find solutions to problems that you have never thought of before. Absolutely, I agree. Next question comes from Hailey Marez from California State Sacramento. What are your best tips to be successful in physics courses as an undergraduate and graduate student? Best tips as an undergraduate and graduate? Collaborate. I know that I would be sitting down looking at a problem thinking I am never gonna get this. And I asked somebody something and they would tell me one thing, one thing that helped them solve it and it taught me to think in a different way and help open up some doors so that I was able to solve more problems. Right, I know that working with my colleagues has helped improve my grades for sure, so very important. Next question from Sarah Blunt, Brown University. She asked, what non-physics college courses that you took helped you most in your career? Ooh, non-physics college courses. Communications. Communications and leadership classes and business classes. The communications will help you right off the bat as soon as you start in your job. The business classes you may not need to a little bit later, but it also helps you interpret how to speak to your boss and what's important to them. And leadership classes, if that suits you and you want to be a leader in your industry, the more you learn about what makes a good leader earlier on, the longer time you have to be able to implement that and hone your own skills. Wonderful. All right, next question comes from Sarah Blunt, Brown University. Oh, I'm sorry, Emily Lubar from the Evergreen State College. Is there something, an idea or phrase or story that you keep in mind during especially difficult times to keep a good perspective and remind yourself to keep moving forward in your field? Oh yeah, that's up there. Be resilient in the face of adversity. It sounds so formal. Well, I call it woman up. You know, people always say man up, woman up. Be tough. I agree, 100%. I've had to be tough multiple times. From Libby Buton from Colorado School of Minds. What pace do you plan on running in your half-marathon tomorrow? Oh no. Yeah, so I'm old and I'm slow as I mentioned several times. So hopefully a 12 minute mile pace. My goal is to finish in the vertical position and not be carried off on a stretcher. I can sympathize with that because I'm also not a runner. So next question comes from Brittany Miles from UCLA. How do you differentiate between trusting your instincts and fear of getting out of your comfort zone? You seem like a very confident woman who embraces opportunities and knows yourself very well. Yeah, that is a very good question. I think there, and this is very hard to describe, when I am trusting my, there's a different feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when I don't trust something than I do when I'm just nervous about starting something new. And I think the more you know yourself and you can distinguish between the two, but for me it's very clear. You know, I'm walking out of the mall late at night. There's one feeling. I don't think I trust this sparking lot. And then there's the, when my boss walks into my office and says, hey, I'd like you to come and join the management team and manage X number of millions of dollars worth of budget that you have no experience with. Awesome, that's a different feeling. So recognize it for yourself, know yourself well, and then it'll help you steer either away from or toward those particular scenarios. Definitely solid advice, I agree. From Ohio State, who have your mentors been and do you have advice on how to find a mentor? Oh yeah, I've been really good at this. So historically I seek out male mentors and I think it's because with my dad dying at 11 I was trying to fill a void. And I found those primarily in coaches and teachers. And then when I got to NASA and some of the folks that had been around a long time. My mom has always been my primary mentor. You know, when you're young and your mom tells you something and you think, man, you don't know anything. There's something that happens to your brain right around 24, 26, where you realize, oh man. Yes she did, she was in fact brilliant. So the sooner you guys can recognize that about your own mothers, the better off you'll be, trust me. But those have been my two primary tasks. Absolutely, I know that I have a lot of influence from my parents as well and they support me as much as possible even to this day. They're over there. So next question comes from Catherine Powell, Florida International University. She asks, my home life interfered with my undergraduate education and I messed up my first attempt at college. What is the best way to address this when applying to grad school? Ooh, grad school. I was like, I've never messed up anything. Oh yeah, right. So I also was looking at, looked at questionably when I applied to grad school with my Big Fat 2.7. That's why it was good to get it back up to 3.2 but I think you have to rely on taking a non-standard approach if you fill out an application and send it in and you don't, you are not there to show these folks face to face how passionate you are and to own up and say, hey, I had a situation, here's the deal, I am smart, I wanna move forward, I need you to believe in me. That is what it's gonna take to get into a grad school, a non-standard approach and sell yourself, stand up for yourself. Absolutely. Allison Farre from the University of Alabama asks, what is your opinion on the privatization of space exploration? Ah, so when this, I will be perfectly honest with you again. Don't ask unless you don't wanna know. When it first came out, I was angry. Way back in the day, I think when Bush announced that they were gonna retire the shuttle and go down this path, I was angry because I was hugging my shuttle. I wanted to keep my shuttle. But once you get over that emotionally, emotional first response, you realize, wow, you know what, this is a great idea. There are a whole bunch of space companies popping up that are out there that are looking at solving problems in new ways and why not open up the playing field? I mean, look what SpaceX is doing and the fact that they're able to retrieve their rocket and put it back into reuse, that is huge in the rocket industry, that is gonna be saving like 70% of your reflight costs. So I say open, the more the merrier, let's do it. I've been excited about the most recent announcement. NASA's partnered with SpaceX and Orbital have been partnering with them. Renewed that partnership and invited Sierra Nevada in and Sierra Nevada has their Dream Chaser vehicle and they're gonna be delivering cargo now to the space station and I think it's great. So the more opportunities we can have to get folks out in regular private industry and the more opportunities will be for students like you to go out there and work and get into the space business. So I'm all for it. Wonderful, wonderful. So Megan Cox from Florida Institute of Technology asks, do you feel like you were given special treatment and opportunities because of your race and gender? Oh, no. Wow, no, under no circumstances, no. There, I think I actually had to claw my way in because of my gender, to be perfectly honest. But once you get in, then it's just all about ability. But no, I never felt that I was, I was special, yes, because my mom said so, but not in that way. Yeah. Eden Ross from Middle Tennessee State University asks, what academic struggles did you come across while studying physics? Yeah, well, I've already mentioned one. And I was just trying to study honors physical science and the dude's like, yeah, we don't take your kind here. So that was primarily my real one and only obstacle. Once I got past that, there really wasn't anything in my way. Great. Any tips for those of us looking to internet NASA from Angie Martinez, University of North Texas? Ah, yes. Start early, apply your sophomore year to the NASA Pathway Interns Program. If you want to, most of the hiring that we do at NASA as a civil servant is through this program. So it's good to get in that way, not to say that there's other non-standard opportunities, but that would be your easiest way and it'll help you. If you're a sophomore and you think you wanna study a particular field and then you come and do a tour with us one semester and you realize, oh, man, I like this other thing better. It gives you an opportunity to change your course and figure, or specialize in one particular area once you figure it out. It's hard to decide when you're in school and you don't really know what's out there that you're latching on to the specific thing that's right for you. Absolutely. And I'll note that actually emailing the faculty members wherever you are as an undergraduate and just telling them, hey, if I can help out with research, they will more than likely be willing to help you for whether it's paid or unpaid as an internship. It's a really great opportunity to get involved in. So wonderful. Kayana Von Hooten from Stanford University asks, what do you wish someone had told you at age 20? Oh, 20. I don't think I can say that all out. Um. It has to do with boys. So we'll file that one away. The other thing I think I wish people had told me was that you, that it's okay to, this is really hard to say in a public setting, that you should expect, you should not expect everyone to have your best interest at heart. I like to think that the world is filled with people that are caring and I think that is a good approach to take in most cases until they prove you otherwise. But just know that there are folks out there that may not look at the world the same way that you do and may have ulterior motives in mind. I was very naive and growing up and I just thought everybody was nice. Wee, yay. So fell on my face a couple of times. As a vibe. Jacqueline Arman from OSU from Wittenberg University says, what decision did you make as an undergraduate that you think most contributed to your success? I think transferring to a university that already had an established partnership with NASA. I loved UTEP. I had nothing against UTEP and I could have stayed there and gotten my degree but without that door being opened to be able to work with NASA while I was still in school, I don't think I would have been where I was today. Absolutely. King Wong from University of Central Florida asks, during your time as an undergraduate student, did you do research with faculty members? Ah, yes. I did some research as an undergrad but primarily it was a construction of a telescope. I was at Texas Tech and some old man from some little teeny town decides he's gonna take his telescope apart, a huge one and put it in the back of his pickup and then dump it onto the grounds of our physics department without like how to put this back together manual. And I was there when the guy did it and I said, hey, how about a senior project on making mirrors and putting this telescope together? So I did, I put the telescope together and it's now an observatory location at Texas Tech. That's wonderful. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Yeah, and be at the right spot when the guy drops off the stuff. Yes, absolutely. Tabitha Kolter from Furman University asks, what did you do to stand out as an intern your first summer at NASA that helped you get promoted to co-op status by the end of the summer? Oh, this is not good. That sounds like a planted question. So when I was an intern, the difference between an internship and a co-op is intern, you're there for one summer, you're gone, bye, have a nice life. If you get into the co-op program, that meant that it was a partnership and you would likely be hired. So it was very important to me. So with day one, when I got to NASA and I talked to my boss and I'm a first day at work, I'm like, dude, thank you for hiring me as your intern. Here's the deal. I need to get transitioned to a co-op by the time this summer is over. And he said, his name was Jose Olivares. He's like, okay, mija. And I'm like, no, no, no, I need more than that. So he gave me my job and I was working in what I call fondly as a dungeon laboratory because that's what you did with physicists, apparently. And I was calibrating weights and calibrating electrical equipment. I didn't ever see anybody. And I thought this is not, no one's gonna convert me, no one comes into the dungeon. So I got to get out of the dungeon. So I found some other co-ops that were working on other projects and other areas. And I asked my boss, I said, hey, when I finished my work, will you let me go and work in this area with this person and this area and this person? And at the end of the summer, I'll get their supervisors to write me a letter of recommendation and that way I can say, hey, you know, this manager in engineering said so and this manager over here said so. So at the end of the summer, I marched down to the co-op office with my boss and all these letters. And I told him to tell them to make me a co-op. And he did and they said, okay. But if I had gone there and just been satisfied, I like, oh, yay, I'm at NASA. Oh, I'm just an intern. Okay, no. So you got to map out a plan, even if it's a little weird. So being tenacious really did help out this situation. Wonderful. So the next question comes from Carolyn G. from Bryn Mawr College. She asks, how did your background as an athlete impact your path in physics? I think it allowed me an avenue to de-stress. Cause studying physics can be very stressful and you get frustrated and you're working on this problem and it's nice to be able to say, I'm gonna go play sand volleyball and or I'm gonna go for a run. So I think it really helped me and I think it also helped me with the methodical approach and a team environment. Cause I played on a lot of teams and when I couldn't solve a problem in physics, I looked at my team for support. And having a team is very important, no matter where you are. Next question comes from Kata from the University of Virginia. Why do you think it's important to encourage women to pursue physics and what are the odds that women face in your opinion? What are the odds that women face? Oh, I wouldn't even just say it's important for women, it's important for people in general to study physics. Look at how much technology has changed. I just told you that when I was in college, we didn't have the internet. I didn't have a cell phone. And if you look now at all the different stuff that we have because of physicists and engineers, we need more people to do that in general. I wouldn't say it's important for women, more important for women or men. Next question. Cassie Phillips asks, I was wondering if you thought after leaving your teaching job, if something you taught has gone up into space with one of the astronauts, and what might that be? This is gonna sound weird. Yes, a diagram of the Russian toilet. Yeah, necessary. Yes, very necessary. And when it failed, he was very happy that he had that diagram on board. And it looks like we'll have about two more questions. So exhausted a lot of these questions already. Hi, Ms. Carrick. I have also dreamed of becoming an astronaut and working for NASA. It's probably my number one goal. What advice do you have and what do you think I need to accomplish in order to be in a similar position to where you are today? Ah, that's a good question. So first of all, make sure that you really wanna do it because that is one of the hardest jobs literally on and off the planet. So you are gonna have to get an advanced degree. If you go to the website, it'll tell you you can probably get in with a bachelor's degree. I challenge you to go to the astronaut biographies page and show me who has a bachelor's degree only and not military flight experience. So keep going to school. And I would do things that make you different. It's amazing when you talk to some of the folks that are in our core. We have people that have lived in Antarctica. We have people that skydive, scuba dive, lead expeditions in some remote location. There are quite a wide variety of folks that have illustrated to us that they have a demonstrated capability of living in a harsh environment, which is what space is. So make sure you have a passion for it. You get the right education and be a little adventurous in some of the things that you go off and do to show us that you've got the right stuff. And our last question from Emily Mellon, University of Utah. Hi, Ginger. I am a future astronaut, hopefully majoring in mechanical engineering with intent to pursue my masters in physics. My question is this, what mentalities or personalities are sought out in astronaut candidates and what can I and other hopefuls do to strengthen our chances of being accepted? That's a good question. I think some of the personality traits that are quite common are self starters, go-getters, leaders, very take charge people, but also people that have the ability to take charge when they need to, play the role of a team member when they need to. Because you will find situations throughout your training as an astronaut and the execution of your mission where you will need to throttle those skills back and forth, follow when the ground tells you to do something. But if there's an emergency on board and you can't talk to the ground, you better be able to take command of everybody in your vehicle and get them to a safe place. So I think those skillsets are quite common across our current core and I don't see that changing. Wonderful. Well again, I'd like to thank Ms. Ginger Kerr for giving us her time and we look forward to using your guidance to enrich our future careers. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. I'm sorry? I'm sorry. So don't pull too hard. Hello. So we just want to give you a thank you gift. It was a great interview, great talk and thank you for sharing your history with us. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah. So please stay in your seats for a couple of minutes because we need some time with Ginger and with them we will direct you to the workshops. Thank you. Was that okay? I was like, is that okay? I'm like, did I dork it up? Did I say anything I would say?