NASA: It's OK to take up space in school

NASA has selected the Alpha School as an Explorer School.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Roger Crouch said he was 56 before he was able to get selected as part of the U.S. team of astronauts.
It was a job he had been trying to get for years, and he finally succeeded, getting to fly on two space shuttle missions.
The message, Crouch told a group of about 150 young boys Wednesday at the Alpha School of Excellence for Boys, is "Don't give up."
The fact that he is colorblind prevented Crouch from getting a pilot's license and getting into the astronaut corps for a long time, but he was persistent, he added.
"You have the resources to get on the right track," Crouch told the seventh- and eighth-graders. Be persistent, but flexible, and don't give up on your dreams, he said.
Crouch was at the school as part of the NASA Explorer School Outreach Program.
School selected
The Alpha School is one of just 50 across the United States picked this year to be a three-year NASA Explorer School. NASA brought a Mobile Aerospace Education Laboratory, filled with hands-on activities related to space exploration, to the school this week, along with a wide range of educational materials for use in the classroom.
Crouch, who last flew in 1998, has continued working for NASA in seeking to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers to help lead the way in developing a new fleet of space vehicles that will take man back to the moon and eventually to Mars.
"There is a place for you at NASA," said Dr. Woodrow Whitlow Jr., director of the NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
Many jobs
It may not be as an astronaut or an aerospace engineer, but there are a lot of jobs in the space program to be filled, he said.
The pupils got a personal challenge from Mayor Jay Williams before Crouch spoke.
Williams confided to the group that, when he was their age, he wanted to work for NASA.
"I wanted to be an aerospace engineer," he recalled, adding that he still has model rockets and models of airplanes and space craft in his home and garage. He told the pupils that he hopes at least one of them becomes fascinated with the idea of space travel and goes on to fulfill the dream that he was unable to complete.
Mike Hawes, deputy associate administrator for program integration in NASA's Office of Space Operations, told the pupils that if he could get to NASA, so could they.
Hawes said he grew up in a small town, nearby Greenville, Pa., and rose to a position of responsibility for the international space station.
NASA's new family of spacecraft should be getting ready to fly about the time this group of young people graduates from college, he said.
gwin@vindy.com