How High School Grad
Anindita Mukherjee
Just Got an Internship
at NASA!
Student Story: by Anindita Mukherjee
Whether it was fate or endeavor that brought me to
NASA, I wouldn’t know. I’d like to think it was a bit
of both. I’m probably among the youngest interns
at NASA. I’m 18 years old and I just graduated from
Lake Park High School this past May. The very next
morning after my graduation ceremony, I was on a
road trip from Chicago to Hampton with my parents.
I felt like I was dreaming – even now I can still hardly
believe I made it to NASA.
My fascination for space science sprouted from
childhood and continued to grow throughout elementary and middle school. In the evenings I would
tune into PBS to watch NOVA, and documentaries by
Steven Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson. I can still
remember the awe I felt while learning about celestial bodies, the Big Bang, space-time and more.
I love working with my hands: creating, building and
tinkering. I am a dreamer and an artist at heart; I use
my hands as a vessel for my creativity and self-expression. I love creating wire sculptures, forming
vases on a pottery wheel, folding origami, solving
Rubik’s cubes and playing musical instruments.
This summer, I was determined to find something
meaningful to do that would combine my love for
science and my passion for art. It was by accident
that I stumbled upon the NASA One Stop Shopping
Initiative website. The application deadline happened
to be the next evening; the clock was ticking fast as I
was scrambling to submit to the maximum number
of openings before midnight.
Among the 15 I
submitted, one was
titled “Folding and packaging solar sails.” In the description, there was a link to HELIOS heliogyro solar
sail, which is a fan-shaped sat