Pascua Yaqui Students Heading to Space Camp
Frances Madeson
Four excited middle school Pascua Yaqui students are over the moon at having been enrolled in Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama this summer. During the week-long program they will meet NASA astronauts and be immersed in simulated astronaut training that could change their lives.
āIām going to make new friends from places around the world, and see how it looks inside of a real spaceship and eat special astronaut foodāpizza inside of a toothpaste tube,ā said fifth-grader Serena Martinez. āIām going to learn about gravity!ā
Martinez along with Soledad Ramirez, Saydee Valenzuela and Yanissa Coronad are the lucky Pascua Yaqui students who will be the ambassadors for the Tucson-area tribe that will be sending students to Space Camp for the next five years. All 12 girls in the three cohorts will be shuttling to Space Camp for three years in a row in a five-year program structured to send the girls hurtling toward careers in the STEM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
āWeāre unearthing their potential and throwing a pebble in the pond knowing theyāre going to ripple out,ā said Czarina Salido, executive director of Time in Cosmology, a nonprofit that sponsors the Taking Up Space program. Taking Up Space is designed to interest indigenous girls in physics and scientific study of the origins and evolution of the universe. The girls are already familiar with Takaria Ania, the Night World, an integral part of their own cosmology, which includes the belief that their ancestors become stars in the night sky.
Time in Cosmology has been collaborating with tribal members Mario Molina, Director of Education; Anna Tarazon, Education Compliance/Sr. Research Analyst; and Sabestine Hernandez, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Computer Lab Supervisor to extend this extraordinary experience to the Pascua Yaqui students, all of whom participate in an after-school girls-only science club that Salido directs on the Pascua Yaquireservation.
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āThe ultimate dream is to have one of the girls become the first Yaqui astronaut, but weāre hoping all of the girls will be inspired to go into a career in STEM, succeed in life, and that the commitment to spending time over three years at Space Camp will give them these skills,ā Salido said.
Attaining confidence-building skills like dynamic problem solving, critical thinking and working as a team to successfully complete their mission are built into the scenarios the Pascua Yaqui Space Campers will be asked to fulfill while also learning about the history of space flight and building and launching rockets.
In addition to supporting the Pascua Yaqui students emotionally to leave the reservation and their families for a week of intensive training, intellectual preparations are also already underway. With readings, videos and by conducting experiments in their science club, the girls will be preparing for their adventure right up until itās time to get on the airplane.
āThis will be my first time flying,ā said third-grader Soledad Ramirez whose main interest in science so far has been collecting rocks for their colors and shapes. āItās going to be fun and awesome looking out at the sky. I want to see the houses and buildings from up there and watch the birds travel really far. I feel like Iāll be able to appreciate the birds.ā
The 9-year-old already has questions about space that she hopes to resolve at camp. āHow does the sky move and we donāt feel it?ā she wonders. āHow come we see the clouds move and not the other stuff?ā
Fourth-grader Saydee Valenzuela is curious about what it might be like to be an astronaut. āIs it hard driving in space? How do they feel being weightless, is it tiring?ā
Saydee had mixed feelings after seeing the movie Hidden Figures. āIt was good, but it was also sad, because they were racist,ā she said.
Valenzuelaās mother Shelley is especially pleased at the positive impact this trip may have on her daughter and Saydeeās other siblings. āSheāll see the world as it is, and inspire her little sisters. It will change her perception. Sheāll be able to put 2 and 2 together, and learn this is our world.ā
Serena Martinezās mother Tinamarie agrees. āTheyāre not only going to be reaching for the stars, theyāll be touching the stars,ā she said.
Martinez expects to shed a few tears when taking Serena to the airport. āSheās always been by my side, but now itās her time to spread her wings and fly.ā
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