Anyone looking at Rose Ferreira, an astronomy
student at Arizona State University and an intern at NASA, cannot imagine the
path that hides behind her successful curriculum.
The young woman grew up in the Dominican Republic
and did not have access to education as a child. She later moved to New York,
where she faced an even harsher reality: she frequented violent regions, had
minimal access to education and was homeless in one of the largest US cities.
But something has always intrigued her: what could
explain space? The questioning comes from childhood, when she experienced
blackout days in her home community. In those moments, she was forced to live
only with the light of the moon.
“The Moon was a lot of what I used to see and I was
always curious about it,” he said, in NASA news website interview. "That
obsession is what made me start asking questions."
The numerous unresolved questions helped her get
through the storm. Rose worked as a home health aide before attending
university and studied through EJA (Youth and Adult Education). She still had
to heal from a car accident and cancer treatment.
It wasn't until after that that she was allowed to
enrol in college. She received the email of her life in July of this year: she
was going to be an intern at NASA.
Dream of being an astronaut
If as a child Rose Ferreira didn't even know what
NASA was, today she wants to become an astronaut for the US space agency. She
says that she felt the greatest emotion of her life when she saw for the first
time the image of a field of galaxies in the James Webb telescope, in July.
“I went into the bathroom and cried a little,” he
recalls, now laughing. “Being able to contribute in some way to the efforts of
the NASA team felt like such a strong thing to me. After that, I was in shock
for a week.”
In his internship, Ferreira advised the teams that
launched the largest space science telescope of all time at the Goddard Space
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
She also supported live interviews on James Webb's first released images and other multimedia assignments for NASA's Spanish-language communications program. Now, her short-term goal is to earn a doctoral degree. And, then, who knows how to fulfill the dream of being an astronaut.
“Discover what you love”
Rose Ferreira left a piece of advice for young
people who also want to follow space science. “Coming from a person who had a
little more trouble getting there, I think, first, find out if it's really what
you love,” she advises.
"And if it's really what you love," then
literally find a way to do it, no matter who says what."
She says the process, while difficult, was worth it.
Her interest now lies in the Artemis mission, which will explore the Moon, her
longtime “friend”.
“Even when I lived on the streets, the moon used to
be the thing I looked to to calm myself down. It’s my sense of comfort even
today when I’m overwhelmed with things,” she said. "It's my driving
force."
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