The School Buzz: former NASA astronaut inspires Widefield, Harrison HS students
If space is the final frontier, high schoolers Colorado Springs may be getting a head start on becoming the world’s next great explorers.
Duane "Digger" Carey is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and a former NASA astronaut. He spent two days this week speaking with students at both Widefield D-3 and Harrison D-2 as part of the Space Foundation’s Junior Space Entrepreneur Program.
Carey's new mission? Encourage students to pursue not just STEAM fields (science, tech, engineering, arts, math) but also encourage kids to become entrepreneurs and start thinking about space and careers within it.
For Carey, he said it was all about learning teamwork. He was not a “straight-A” student. He said he had a hard time in school and the "light bulb came on late." And if we want to explore the moon, Mars, and beyond, it will take millions of kids to dream, and go after that dream, as he did.
"Really what I want them to come away with at the end is to point at me and say, 'If that dummy can do it, I can do it.' And that's really the message is that those opportunities are out there as never before," said Carey.
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