{"id":47586,"date":"2024-02-08T18:50:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T18:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/?p=47586"},"modified":"2025-04-24T09:02:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T14:02:33","slug":"nasa-selects-acc-student-for-special-scholars-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/2024\/02\/08\/nasa-selects-acc-student-for-special-scholars-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Selects ACC Student for Special Scholars Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"alignnormal\"><div id=\"metaslider-id-47588\" style=\"width: 100%; margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"ml-slider-3-107-0 metaslider metaslider-flex metaslider-47588 ml-slider has-dots-nav has-carousel-mode ms-theme-outline\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"SP24_NASA Student Juan\" data-height=\"600\" data-width=\"900\">\n    <div id=\"metaslider_container_47588\">\n        <div id=\"metaslider_47588\">\n            <ul class='slides'>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-47601 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2024-02-08 18:00:33\" data-filename=\"IMG_2857-scaled-900x600.jpg\" data-slide-type=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/IMG_2857-scaled-900x600.jpg\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" alt=\"Student participating in NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program pose for picture in front of NASA sign\" class=\"slider-47588 slide-47601 msDefaultImage\" title=\"IMG_2857\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-47602 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2024-02-08 18:00:34\" data-filename=\"IMG_2879-scaled-900x600.jpg\" data-slide-type=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/IMG_2879-scaled-900x600.jpg\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" alt=\"Picture of solar panel used at NASA\" class=\"slider-47588 slide-47602 msDefaultImage\" title=\"IMG_2879\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-47605 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2024-02-08 18:00:37\" data-filename=\"IMG_3129-863x576.jpg\" data-slide-type=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/IMG_3129-863x576.jpg\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" alt=\"Group of students participating in NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program pose for picture\" class=\"slider-47588 slide-47605 msDefaultImage\" title=\"IMG_3129\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-47606 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2024-02-08 18:00:37\" data-filename=\"IMG_3148-scaled-900x600.jpg\" data-slide-type=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/IMG_3148-scaled-900x600.jpg\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" alt=\"Student participating in NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program pose for picture in front of NASA sign\" class=\"slider-47588 slide-47606 msDefaultImage\" title=\"IMG_3148\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-47607 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2024-02-08 18:00:38\" data-filename=\"IMG_3204-676x450.jpg\" data-slide-type=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/IMG_3204-676x450.jpg\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" alt=\"Group of students participating in NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program pose for picture\" class=\"slider-47588 slide-47607 msDefaultImage\" title=\"IMG_3204\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-47608 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2024-02-08 18:00:39\" data-filename=\"IMG_3207-900x600.jpg\" data-slide-type=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/IMG_3207-900x600.jpg\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" alt=\"Group of students participating in NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program pose for picture\" class=\"slider-47588 slide-47608 msDefaultImage\" title=\"IMG_3207\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-47609 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2024-02-08 18:00:40\" data-filename=\"IMG_4661-scaled-900x600.jpg\" data-slide-type=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/IMG_4661-scaled-900x600.jpg\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" alt=\"Student participating in NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program pose for picture in front of airplane\" class=\"slider-47588 slide-47609 msDefaultImage\" title=\"IMG_4661\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-47610 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2024-02-08 18:00:41\" data-filename=\"IMG_7577-scaled-900x600.jpg\" data-slide-type=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/IMG_7577-scaled-900x600.jpg\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" alt=\"Group of students participating in NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program pose for picture\" class=\"slider-47588 slide-47610 msDefaultImage\" title=\"IMG_7577\" \/><\/li>\n            <\/ul>\n        <\/div>\n        \n    <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine working side-by-side with NASA engineers to dissect challenges and develop solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Austin Community College District (ACC) student Juan Manuel Monsivais-Pe\u00f1a doesn\u2019t have to imagine \u2014 he just lived the experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thousands of students across the nation applied for the special NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program, and Juan was one of a select few hand-picked for the journey.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He worked with teams at NASA on a series of missions to develop possible solutions for current challenges faced by NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was surprised that I was given an offer to join. I didn\u2019t think I would qualify when I found the opportunity, but I submitted my application. When I was told I was selected, I realized that, regardless of doubting my skills and myself, pushing myself is the way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NCAS gives community college STEM students an authentic NASA experience and encourages them to finish an associate degree and transfer to a four-year university to pursue a NASA-related field. Juan plans to complete his General Studies degree in spring 2024, followed by finishing his second degree in Biology by the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAfter this experience and being at Ames Research Center, I decided to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin and would like to pursue Astrobiology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Juan completed all three NCAS missions, which helped him build on all the skills he was learning.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEvery step of the way taught you something you could apply to the next mission. Mission 1 taught us how to research and condense our information. Mission 2, we were assigned into teams and worked only for a week with no prior introductions, straight into teamwork and research. In Mission 3, we worked with an assigned team for two weeks online to do research for a drone proposal. We then went onsite at Ames Research Center.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The experience provided Juan with the training and opportunity to see where he wanted to go and pursue his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI hope to intern and even get a job working with NASA. This opportunity shows people how NASA works. You get to learn about the experiences and the journey. I feel that we put NASA workers in this place \u2014 they are above people because they&#8217;re so smart, and in reality, they are down-to-earth people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information on transferring, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/transfer-services\/\">austincc.edu\/transfer<\/a>. If you are interested in pursuing a career in SEM, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/programs.austincc.edu\/science-engineering-and-math\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">austincc.edu\/sem<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of students across the nation applied for the special NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program, and Juan was one of a select few hand-picked for the journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":47614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-stories","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/infohub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}