The World Has Lost A Hero, Eugene Cernan, The Last Man On The Moon. Commanded Apollo 17, Drove The Moon

Make the Most of a Summer Internship Establishing good habits, setting goals and doing research - I share internship tips in U of Minnesota Duluth's career blog: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/make-the-most-out-of-your-summer-career-experience/

A journal book I covered in little black star drawings

Make the Most of Your Summer Vacation

Olaf and I have similar ideas about what makes a good summer. “Relaxing in the summer sun, just lettin’ off steam”. Although doing “what frozen things do in summer” sounds appealing to Olaf, I understand that summer can be a whole lot more than bumming on the beach, blowing dandelion fuzz, and sand volley balling. It can be hard to decide what to do with your precious summer vacation, volunteering, interning, or working at a job. But my discussion with you today will hopefully help you make the most of your summer.

I have had a number of summer volunteering, interning and working experiences. I used to be a volunteer for Duluth Minnesota's Essentia Health hospital stocking IVs and making patient beds in the Surgical In/Out patient unit. I also interned at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Computer Science Department and for Rockwell Automation. As summer class registration is in swing, companies are looking to hire, and you are finalizing where you will be staying this information may be help you out. We will look at three different factors to consider when deciding if it is the best to volunteer, intern, or work. These three factors include if you want to make a substantial amount of money, where locationally-wise you would like to be over the summer, and if you would like your experience to be relevant to your major.

MONEY First let’s talk cash. The green paper, and sometimes electronic figures, that rule your life.  As broke college students having a little change on hand to help pay for college expenses, toss into savings, and curb debt is always a plus. Naturally, a factor to consider when deciding how to make the most of your summer is if money is on your mind.

Volunteering -  although rewarding does not offer pay so may not be a first choice if money is a major factor.

Internships - they can lead to well-paid summer experience. As reported by CNN Money in an article, “Interns at Google probably make more than you” written by Katie Labosco in 2013, interns at tech companies like Google “are paid $5,800 monthly, while specialized software engineers make as much as $6,700 per month”. This amount is higher than the United States’ median household income. Unfortunately not all internships are paid and the amount depends on the demand of the trade such as technology and healthcare.

Summer job - Money seems to be the biggest perk of a summer job despite the possible burger flipping and shirt folding to get it. Unlike an internship summer jobs are more plentiful and with flexible hours let you work more than one at a time.

Another factor to keep in mind in addition to money is location

LOCATION Location can potentially be like the icing on the cake of an experience. You can decide to conveniently stay in your hometown, pick a location with a more desirable climate, or travel somewhere on your bucket list.

Volunteering - offers an endless pool of locations to choose from- between the nursing home across the street and tribes in Africa. From suburbs to cities someone - somewhere someone will need your help. Volunteering through United Way, Church Missionaries, American Red Cross, and Peace Corps offers a wide variety of locations. There are local volunteering opportunities right here in Duluth, MN too. Feed homeless at Chum, take care of precious stray animals at Animal Allies, or help patients at Essentia Health like I did.

Internships -  can be a little scarcer in where they are offered. Companies must have a budget and mentorship resources set aside for interns mostly major companies in large cities offer internships. There are however a few internships in smaller cities such as Digi Key in Thief River Falls, MN and study abroad programs held by global companies such as Rockwell Automation.

Summer jobs - can be easily in your home town or where you are studying, some even within walking distance. Some summer jobs offer housing as a part of their package. At Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio workers are offered a place to stay on site, for cost food, and good pay.

Aside from a nice location choosing a summer activity that is relevant to your field of study will also help you make the most of your summer.

Me Performing Community Outreach with the Daredevils Duluth East Daredevils FIRST Robotics Team 2512. 2012. Duluth

RELEVANCE TO MAJOR A Huffington Post article “Why Gaining Work Experience Is More Important Than Your Education” written by Thad Baker in 2013 claims that, “you need more than a college degree to get hired”.  From that same article CNN reported findings from High Flyers, Research Company that specializes in student recruitment research, that “college graduates without work experience have "little chance" of getting a job”.

All Three -  Fortunately Volunteering, Interning, and Working are all opportunities that can relate to your field of study.  Volunteer at a hospital to get experience on the floor while pursuing a nursing degree, intern at a company you wish to work at someday, take a job that exercises skills that you will need in your career like as a manager or sales personnel.

CONCLUSION Today we have discussed factors to consider while deciding what to do over summer vacation Options we weighed included volunteering, interning, or working based on the money that can be made, location, or relevance to major. Now you have an idea of how to make the most out of your summer vacation. No matter which of these options you pick there will still be time to hold a drink in your and prop your feet against the burning sand like Olaf.

WHAT YOU CAN DO...

Volunteeer Match: a quick way to find who needs your help locally or abroad http://www.volunteermatch.org/

Internships: my best advice for finding an internship would be visiting you university's career center, attending a job fair/ internship fair, or searching on your desired company's website. Your university's career center can be experemely helpful with not only finding an internship but also preparing your resume and cover letter.

I edit resumes, cover letters, and internship applicaitons! Find me on Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/s/7rmpki

WORKS CITED

Lobosco, Katie. "Interns at Google Probably Make More than You." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 12 June 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

Baker, Thad. "Why Gaining Work Experience Is More Important Than Your Education." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Aug. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

This post is from a speech I wrote for my public speaking class. I liked it so much and thought it would be helpful so I put it on here!

NASA Co-Op Week 8 & 9: Thunderbirds

Between attending Grace Hopper and developing astronaut training I have taken part in a couple of volunteer opportunities.

Fighter Jets: Wings Over Houston (WOH) is an annual event where stunt jets, Pearl Harbor reenactments and hobby planes take over Ellington Airport. This year the Thunderbirds flew as the main event. That ultra ugly plane, Super Guppy, was designed by NASA to carry two T38s inside of it, planeception! The T38s are used to train astronaut pilots at high speeds. After the show many interns helped tear down because by midnight we had to make sure Ellington could continue normal operations.

Puppies: Johnson Space Center interns helped get dogs adopted with Triumphant Tails. This nonprofit holds adoption events with the goal to keep dogs out of kill shelters. I helped a blonde four month old spaniel get adopted.

Safety: Following Columbia Disaster and attempts to learn from mistakes JSC created Health & Saftey day. Free flu shots were given, local health groups put up informational booths and workout groups have demonstrations. On of my friends from interning this summer was a big part of organizing the event. I volunteered directing old fashion model cars for a car show. Not sure what this has to do with Safety but it is a neat thing.

No tax dollars were harmed in any of these activities.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

See why is Scott Kelly on a Year Long Mission

Watch the Thunderbirds from WOH

Accomplishments this week at NASA

Easy way to get started with coding. Methods for 8-11, 12-17, 18-25+ year old in various learning styles!

NASA Meets Super Bowl LI

Super Bowl has taken over Houston and NASA! VIPs have been touring all week with cameras flashing and film rolling. Despite the excitement work at Johnson continues uninterrupted. During work hours we are the entertainment viewed by the VIPs as we test, train and support space missions. In fact, today I conducted user testing in the Space Vehicle Mock Up Facility, a facility that feels like a fish bowl as tour goers check out Space Station and Orion training mock-ups. Heads down and clip boards out we user tested a device for on board International Space Station. However, last week NASA put together an opportunity to meet retired NFL players during lunch to get our Super Bowl fill before the big week. 

NASA has a huge presence at Super Bowl events and is expected to be featured during on the big screen during pre-game shows and game. There has been film crews running around Johnson and other related centers, I will be watching for some NASA love on TV Sunday! Here is a TV Guide of when coverage will start for those who don't get a newspaper: http://www.tvguide.com/listings/ The Fox Super Bowl Kick Off starts at 12:00pmCT Noon and the game starts at 5:30pmCT. Already NASA has taken over downtown Houston with the Orion Capsule, space booths and a giant drop tower that virtually send you to Mars and back. NASA has also made a number of Super Bowl related videos and social media posts found below...

NASA Referees Test of Footballs vs. Webb Telescope ^

Referee Robonaut: Robot Preforms Football Signals^

NASA Team! Where innovation meets sports.^

Journalists and bloggers attend NASA Social to ask astronauts about SuperBowl related questions. ^

Yahoo's Tony Sirusa rides in the Modular Robotic Vehicle^

Enjoy the game Sunday!

Pokemon Go Has Taken Over NASA! Before work, at lunch and after work interns gather at Pokemon lures and battle at Johnson Space Center's gyms. There is a Saturn V, Mission Control and Apollo Statue gym! It appears the majority of NASA folk are blue team. Our unique Pokemon include Jynx, Venasaur and Mewoth.

Saturn V - the rocket built to fly is now a grounded beast. #techisbeautiful #NASAIntern #jsc

NASA Co-Op Week 15: Precious Cargo

Six flags of countries who contributed to the International Space Station decorate the flight console. I return to Mission Control watching launch preparations from a new perspective - with Remote Interface Officer. Colloquially called RIO this team of international collaborators were originally dubbed Russian Integration Officer. The RIO flight controller communicated with the Russian team for launch and cargo capture system checks for the Cygnus rocket launch carried by an Atlas V rocket. Cygnus carries over 7,000 pounds of experiments, food and replacement parts to Space Station. cell cultures, bacteria, and microbe satellite experiments are on board the Cygnus rocket. We are calling this event a "Cyg"-nificant launch.

A team of  NASA flight controllers flip-flop working in the Russian Mission Control Center in Moscow and NASA's in Houston. For two months controllers visiting Moscow sit console for eight hours a day, six days a week, and on call 24/7.  By being available to assist with international troubleshooting, answering the right questions, and making right calls at the right time RIO has saved the space station hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ten years ago an hour of an astronaut's time in space was worth $100,000 so that cost has inflated even more now!

RIO introduced me to their mascot, a groundhog named Phil. One of the first Russian American collaborations took place on a Groundhog Day. Phil's collar is decorated with pins from various missions. The plush Ground Hog was hibernating under the console but has been kidnapped and escorted around the Red Square.

An odd anecdote I learned is that there is a survival hand gun stowed away on the Soyuz capsule. It is used if the Soyuz makes an emergency landing in an unexpected area and the astronauts need to defend themselves from bears or wolves. That's pretty hard core!

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch the Cygnus cargo launch Dec 3rd 4:55pmCT: http://www.ustream.tv/NASAHDTV Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/t3_5ahJ0-Lw Apply for a NASA Internship & Scholarships NOW: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/ NASA Co-Op applications: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars: http://nas.okstate.edu/ncas/ Join an aspirations in computing community: https://www.ncwit.org/programs-campaigns/aspirations-computing

Watch JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)'s HTV-6 cargo ship depart from the international space station 9amCT Friday Jan 27. HTV-6 is scheduled to deorbit in early February and burn up harmlessly while entering earths atmosphere over the ocean. During the decemt JAXA will be gathering data on electromagnetic forces around Earth: http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

Commercial Space & Ocean Worlds: NASA Co-Op #3 Week 14

Did you know that at least one human has inhabited the International Space Station over 16 years?!

NASA even has a Cumulative Crew Time on Orbit clock. Frequent flyers of this blog are familiar with the giant space lab orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, however, even some of the public within a 20 mile radius of Johnson Space Center think NASA has shut down! It's up to myself, NASA full-timers, NASA interns and the science enthused to educate the public about the continuing efforts in space exploration.

International Space Station (ISS) Program Manager Kirk Shireman hosted an all hands for NASA employees to share about achievements and future goals. NASA is leading the commercialization of space by. The media often portrays NASA as fretting space commercialization when in reality NASA is fueling it. NASA has contracted SpaceX and Orbital ATK to deliver cargo to ISS every couple of months as commercial resuppliers. Launch of ATK April 18th 9:30am-10:30am CT. Boeing and SpaceX are being contracted by NASA to develop the Commercial Crew Vehicles to transport astronauts from Earth to ISS and back. The Commercial Crew Program enables manned launches from American soil. Additionally ISS is working toward attaching station nodes built by private space companies that deploy CubeSats. NASA thinks of the private and public space company research and device developers as customers. NASA is working on making space more accessible to its "customers".

Graduate School Advice

A Co-Op student leader coordinated a graduate panel with folks with NASA experience that also completed grad school. These are some helpful anonymous quotes from the panel...

“So when you roll into my office and say you want to be an astronaut I need a PhD, remember these are seven to eight years of your life”.

“How long it takes depends on how long it takes to do new science”.

“How many papers does it take to graduate? Okay. Spit in your hand and shake”.

Student: I want to get a degree in something very different than undergrad.

Panel member: “You can do anything”.

“Most people are human.”

“The answers aren’t in the back of the book once you start full-time.”

Ocean Worlds in Our Solar System

Evidence of giant water plumes observed on one of Saturn's moon Enceladus and one of Jupiter's Europa has been found. This exploration started in the 1990s when Galileo space craft orbited Jupiter and its moons. The magnetic signature  detected on Europa suggests ocean like currents underneath its icy shell. During a 2005 Cassini performed an Enceladus fly by and spotted huge plumes were observed. Recently data from these mission have been analyzed and conclusions have been reached.

Terrestrial oceans have hydro thermal activity feeding life deep 1000s of meters below the ocean. Plumes spotted on extraterrestrial worlds are believed to produce "300 pizzas per hour of energy" in calories. "The statistics tell us that plumes are real by full sigma results". However, Hubble has reached its max to detect these plumes on Europa so scientists cannot be certain yet. Bill Sparks from Goddard expanded on the uncertain of Europa's plumes, "It's not completely unequivocally but in my mind the pendulum has swung from cation to optimism. The evidence is growing. The fact we have saw a repeated the exact same location. That's one of the gold standards for dealing with a repeat phenomenon. It's not proof because we are right at the limit of what Hubble can do." He shared it is evidence rather than proof because spectrometer readings, movies and maps have been taken of Enceladus is high definition compared to the smudge of low resolution observation made by Hubble's max capacity.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

More reading on these ocean worlds!...

Full press conference by NASA scientists about the water plumes: https://youtu.be/3n-0CSCcJuQ

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/index.html

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/ocean-worlds/

This week at NASA.

NASA commercial cargo provider Orbital ATK is targeting its seventh commercial resupply services mission to the ISS for 10:11 a.m. CDT Tuesday, April 18. Coverage of the launch begins at 9 a.m. on NASA TV.