Jonesboro, AR – JonesboroRightNow.com – A retired NASA astronaut will be coming to speak to the Jonesboro community at the Valley View School District in June.

Commander Susan Kilrain is a retired NASA astronaut and Navy test pilot. She is one of only three women to have piloted a space shuttle. She has flown more than 3,000 flight hours in 30 different aircraft types.

Kilrain’s coming to Valley View was born out of a desire to take the district’s Gifted and Talented (GT) kids to Space Camp.

Valley View GT Coordinator April Johnson said she was speaking with Genevieve Meyer, parent of one of Johnson’s students and cofounder of STEMaiverse, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education to students in rural areas, about wanting to take kids to Space Camp, but it was too expensive.

“So, [Meyers] said, ‘How about if I bring Space Camp to you?'” Johnson explained.

Meyers said her cofounder, Damian Aldridge, has been running programs similar to STEMaiverse for around 10 years. Aldridge worked with several astronauts during that time, including Kilrain.

“He worked with her four times around the world, and when we were talking about doing Space Camp, I said, you know, I have somebody pretty cool who we can bring in. So, that’s how it happened,” Meyers said.

Space Camp will still be happening, just a little closer to home. The district’s GT students going into the fourth and seventh grades will participate in a five-day camp hosted on campus, where students engage in projects that will challenge their engineering, building, and problem-solving skills.

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Meyers explained that during this camp, students will work on and present a capstone project, and that for two days, Kilrain will provide an interactive lecture in the mornings with the students. For the rest of the day, she will serve as the students’ engineering mentor and conduct meet-and-greets with them.

Meyers said having someone speak to students interested in STEM with similar experiences can help shape their future. She noted that Kilrain came from a rural southern community, similar to the Valley View students.

“This is kind of the timeframe when kids are starting to say, ‘I’m a math person, or I’m a science person,’ or not. And once they get those ideas in their heads, they feel pretty solidly that that’s their reality for the rest of their life,” Meyers explained. “The determining factors that decide whether somebody goes into STEM start in upper elementary and middle school, so if we can bring really exciting events, really, like ‘make your skin get goosebumps,’ excitement, for these kids at that age, we’re keeping this career path open for them.”

Meyers added that, especially for the female students participating, Kilrain can serve as a role model.

“That keeps that pathway open to them. That keeps that idea open to them, because they can see that was somebody like me,” Meyers said. “Somebody who was from a place like me did this. I can do this, too.”

On Thursday, June 18, during the Space Camp week, Kilrain will give a lecture to the public. This will take place in the Valley View Fine Arts Center, located at 2111 Valley View Drive, at 6 p.m.

Meyers and Johnson said this lecture will be free to attend, but those interested will have to get tickets in advance.

The online ticket portal has not gone live yet, but the two said they expect it to go live in mid-April and that an announcement will be made once tickets are available.

To raise money for the Space Camp event, Meyers and Johnson said a meet-and-greet before the community-wide lecture and seats in the front row would be auctioned off. They stressed that the remaining 800 seats would be completely free.

For those wanting to help the program, Johnson and Meyers said donations could be made, or people could volunteer their time and/or STEM expertise. To donate, click here. Those interested in volunteering can contact Meyers at genevieve@stemaiverse.com or Johnson at april.johnson@valleyviewschools.net.

“For a community to be able to rally around something exciting like that, and come together around something like that, is exciting,” Meyers said. “We know that healthy communities participate in things together, and so, it’s just all of Valley View who are going to be part of that community, it’s greater Jonesboro.”

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