Monique Calhoun at NASA URC Student Leadership Series

Each campus University Research Center selected a scholar to participate in a personal video interview and Monique Calhoun represented Howard University.  Monique spoke about her “NASA Research Experience”, the “Impact of the NASA URC at the Howard University Beltsville Research Campus” and “Current Activities at their NASA URC.” All the purposes of academic writing are stated in our recent research project at https://theplagiarism.com/articles/why-academic-writing-is-important.

Monique describes her experience at the Student Leadership Series:

"From October 31 to November 3 2010, NASA URC hosted a conference to launch the Student Leadership Series (SLS).  This conference took place in Cape Canaveral, Florida at the NASA Kennedy Space Center. The NASA URC SLS was a wonderful experience which included professional workshops, NASA tours and interviews. 

There were a number of speakers at the professional workshops. To begin, Dr. Calvin Mackie shared words of encouragement, his personal struggles and gave skills to be successful as a scientist and Engineer. Another speaker that we had was Dr. Carl Person who is the Program Manager NASA headquarters Office of Education. His message was to follow your dreams no matter how hard it may seem.  Last but not least we had the opportunity hear the space mission experience of former astronaut Leland Melvin. Melvin spoke of his journey as an astronaut then he stressed that he loved giving back to the community.

The NASA tours were a great opportunity. We were able to see the space shuttle at a very close distance. We also got to see the NASA warehouse where they build the shuttle. On top of that we were able to participate in a shuttle simulation ride.

Lastly, the NASA URC interviewed one student from each university on their NASA URC experience and I was selected to do the interview. In the interview I shared the field campaign opportunity that I had with NASA scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in California.  I also talked about how BCCSO has provided internship opportunity for students in various fields working with NASA scientist.

Overall the SLS conference was a wonderful experience and I am glad that I was able to participate in this opportunity."