The crazy month of MAY!!!

Balancing school, work, and my personal life has been a whirlwind lately. The month of May, especially, is going to be very busy!

I am excited for next week as I will be a judge for the 2007 NASA Means Business Student Competition here at KSC. I will be rating and ranking the team finalists that have been working on their proposals since Fall 2006 on how NASA can better promote science and math among middle and high school students, as well as the general public. On May 7-9, I will participate in the Ninth Annual Customer Engagement Conference at KSC where the grand prize recipient will be selected and announced!!! The team finalists are Arizona State University and The Art Institute of Phoenix (ASPIRE), Bentley College and Boston University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Florida), Miami International University, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, University of Houston - Clear Lake, and University of Northern Iowa!!!!! I will definitely post some pictures and recap the conference.

May 12th, I will be in the MUDDY BUDDY RIDE & RUN! It is a trail running and biking race, 6-7 miles with 5 obstacle courses, including the infamous MUD PIT!!!

Then the following week will be my trip to Washington D.C with the Citizens for Space Exploration. I am very appreciative that the organization will be sponsoring me to attend along with other students from different states. I can't wait to attend this function as I will voice to Congress how space exploration benefits us all and the importance of full funding for NASA.

I saw this article last week that Stephen Hawking got to experience microgravity!!! I especially liked his comment for his motive on experiencing microgravity:

"Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons," he said before the flight. "First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space."

F.Y.I.....Rollout for Atlantis (STS-117) should be sometime in the middle of May!!!