Script for Interviews:
Good morning! My name is Mary Denmon (she/her), Deputy Director for WA NASA Space Grant, and I would like to welcome you to our Space Grant interviews for our first year scholarship at the University of Washington.
In 1989, NASA established the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, known as Space Grant. Space Grant is a national network of colleges and universities, belonging to 52 consortia (one for each state, DC, and Puerto Rico). The main goal of Space Grant is to expand participation in and knowledge of NASA’s projects by supporting STEM education, research, and public outreach efforts.`
So, our office – the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium – supports that mission in the state of Washington through various efforts, including this scholarship. A few other examples of things our office does: we coordinate internship opportunities, hands-on students projects in rocketry, ballooning, Cubesats, robotics and more! We also run our own research program called the Summer Undergraduate Research Program or SURP.
Our UW Space Grant scholars not only receive scholarship funds but become a part of a community. Space Grant helps students find a small community within a large university that provides access to unique events and programs. We have a student organization, called SPACE that plans social events, mentoring opportunities, and helps with outreach efforts. We have had networking events with Blue Origin, a lecture and lunch with Apollo 8 Astronaut Bill Anders, just to name a couple. Our scholars have had NASA internships, done impactful research in a variety of subject areas, and have gone on graduate school or exciting careers.
I’ll turn it over to Anna in just a minute to go over some items on the schedule, as a reminder you you should be able to edit your zoom name if you haven’t already or we can change it for you. Please include your full name and you are welcome to also include your pronouns.