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So today was pretty divided. It was a long day at work... very long... no real breaks except for lunch. But other than that, it was great as usual and the people are still awesome! My database draft is coming along well... I think this is the most I've used office programs in quite some time. It's nice.

After the work day, the sun was out beneath the cloudless sky and there was a breeze... just enough for a wonderfully clearing run.

I got the opportunity to talk to yet another incredible individual who has really opened my eyes in the matter of the 30 or 40 minutes we ran and I have lots to learn. There is something very powerful about people who are faithful and confident-- in inspires and motivates me to not only become more faithful, but more focused, and more self-confident.

I learn a lot around here... but I think that the most important thing I'm learning this summer is that I need go with the flow and realize that some things are not up to me. And some of the individuals around here have really got that down pat. I'm looking forward to learning more about how that works.

All for now,
Olivia

P.S.- Here is a picture of some of our crew.

City On Our Knees

Yesterday was AWESOME! The NASA Inspire bunch along with our collegiate Lercip friends went to Cedar Point and went on EVERY ride (I'm sure) and had the time of our lives. It was just flat out amazing. I finally conquered Millennium Force... for all those of you who remember our 8th grade escapade we weren't all quite as brave. For some in our INSPIRE group, these were the first coasters for them to ever go on. The day ended with a meal at a very family Italian restaurant which brought back family memories. We all had a great bunch of laughs on the car ride back at midnight.

While the day was excellent, I truly appreciated the time our group had to bond.

I can't say this enough, but living around such bright and motivated students is a truly INSPIRING thing. Right now, I am taking a quick break from my ACT studying and I know I wouldn't be studying if I were at home right now... but being here has put a lot into perspective.

Overall, the weather is beautiful here... haven't really had any showers (sorry Chicago folks). The pace is fast but different... I kind of like that though and wouldn't mind staying right here for the next few years.

Missing Friends and Family but loving NASA,
Olivia

P.S- People wanted to see my excellent co-workers AT NASA here it is.

From left to right we have...LEON, Ralph, and Ron
MORE TO COME on this hilarious but brilliant bunch.

Done!

So I finished my meeting... happy it's over, but I have another in about 2 weeks. Everyone was super nice and very eager to present input. I will be drafting this data-base in no time!

Both Ms. Brown-Houston and Ms. Shores came for the meeting which was awesome and Leon came too, and stayed the whole time! This meeting wasn't even for his division---He just came for moral support! He needs a gift card or at the very least a thank you card...

I got some great feedback from him afterwards too. He said I did a great job and one of the members there suggested that I skip my last year at high school, skip college, and get a contract with NASA so that if they need help naviagating or updating the database in the future--I would be able to help them. Haha. Ms. Tenteris was also pleased with the presentation and sent over information shortly after the meeting. YES!

On an entirely different note, I had a really deep conversation about life with one of my fellow interns today at lunch (those have been hard to come by lately). He's had a pretty complicated life situation from deaths in the family to moving from a different country, skipping school for 2 years to help work, living amoungst 8 children, learning an entirely new language, and getting to where he is now. It is really incredible how far he has come in his short, 20 year lifetime (so far). He's still got a whole life ahead of him to live and he will, no doubt, change the world. It was great getting a new perspective and a wonderfully inspiring story from this young man. Hence, NASA's INSPIRE group. But one of the things that I can really relate to in his story is the part about getting to this place... where I'm typing right now-NASA. And for some, their NASA may be a state soccer team, or a national hockey championship. For others it may be earning their PhD. For others it consists of working on healing people every day of their lives and for others yet it is the vision of bringing justice to the human race.

But I know that, at least in my life, my dream was half my work and half the work of God. I'm so blessed to have all of the people around me at work and outside of work, all of the support from my administrators and teachers, and of course my friends and family-- who I am forever endebted to for what they've taught me.

Now, if you are reading this and are like "She's databasing. How come she's so excited about that?" It's not just the databasing around here. It's the meetings, and the connections with AMAZING people, and the conversations with the engineers, and the shadowing in labs, and the presentations and everything. It's about a lot more than a database... and I couldn't be more stoked about anything if I tried.

On my off time during work, I do some ACT prep stuff here and there and I learn about aircraft from the SR-71 which can go 85,000ft in the air... in the STRATOSPHERE and one can see the curve of the Earth outside their window to what a STRATOSPHERE even is. One of my fellow interns is trying to teach me a little basic computer programming stuff too.

This weekend on our OFF--off work hours we will be going to Cedar Point... whoot whoot and hopefully we'll plan some NERF gun wars in between as well as a few quality movie nights.

For all those who are reading this INCREDIBLY long post and are looking for some drama, I am pleased to say I've got NOTHIN' for ya. Things around here are G rated and as clean as a whistle. I think just by living around these brillient kids my intelligence has gone up a few points. But, for all of those who know me well, I do perform best when in a G-rated enviornment and I can honestly say my view of the world right now is clouded with uniorns and rainbows figuratively speaking, but life is good here and people all seem to be moving in the same direction-FORWARD.

That's all for now,
Girl On The Rise

P.S.- I'll put some pictures on of my co-workers soon!For now, here is the 21st century video that all of us saw on our first Friday at the offices of NASA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ehGLqzBVM

My Life Be Like Oooh Ahhh

Hey guys. Day 10 here. Today is presentation for the Risk Management Team--- Leon is coming for moral support though so I hope that'll make it OK.I'm so nervous... I just gotta get in the mindset you know. Anyhow, besides that, things are pretty great around here. Lots of frisbee and bowling and other fun activities that definitely WOULDN'T be approved of on school nights. Haha.

I'm really getting along with my co-workers well and they have a lot to teach me this summer. Yesterday we had an hour long discussion about math classes and calculus in college. A heated discussion about the usefulness of synthetic division. =) But I'm glad to know that ALL engineers hated social studies and can't stand to sit around and talk about a dumb book for a week.

Anyhow, I hope to keep in contact with the people in the office until their time on the beloved ARES rockets comes to a dead halt and gets shelved. So there's Ron who is very smart and he is buddy buddy with my other co-worker Leon who is a super interesting person-he had 11 cars! He'll answer just about any question I have. Then there's Cell, who is a big guy and is a gentle giant and is very soft spoken but brilliant. Then there is Maria who is traveling from Houston to Japan and leading the Connect project. There is also Linda, who brightens my day everyday because she is the most hilarious secretary EVER! And there are tons others that I'm forgetting right now that I laugh, work, and learn with every day. I really am blessed to work at such an amazing office and to be having the time of my life.

Talk to you all soon (after the presentation)!

-Girl On The Rise

Morning

It's Monday morning here at the Case Dorms... I'm just chilling waiting for everyone to be ready to leave for work. It's 6:55am so I'll make this one a quickie.

I'm very excited to go to work today because I get to make a presentation for the risk management team that I will present hopefully on Wednesday (and who doesn't love powerpoint?) Tomorrow we get the official tours of the facility as well, which should be cool.

Over the weekend, I send out lots of letters to people (LOTS of writing) and I saw many movies (Avatar, Toy Story 3 etc.) Of those, I have to say Toy Story 3 stole my heart... I was teared up by the end.

Other than the nerf gun fights (which are pretty intense), our group got a chance to explore Little Italy, and I got a chance to run with Amanda (our Student Advisor)... she is really a sweet girl and has a lot to teach and tell. I'm looking forward to learning from her, my mentor, Ms. Calhoun, and my chaperone, Samantha. They are all very well read and are among the most compassionate individuals I've met.

More to come later,
Girl On The Rise

Wow

Today was a fantastic day at work again. We did our 21st century skills workshop where we got to create our own school and cirriculum. Although the activity was a little bit dry, it was a great opportunity for the NASA INSPIRE crew to communicate. They are all very bright, intelligent, and most importantly MOTIVATED young men and women. They work hard and are well-spoken and fluid when put on the spot for presentations. Their incredible apptitude in computer science, physics, and math astounds me more and more each and every day as I feel good and bad growing pains that come along with this NASA Internship. Mostly though, I really am just taking all of the good stuff in. It is really incredible how much information one brain can hold.

The 21st century skills reminded me a ton of my time at home with my wonderful researcher and star student/librarian that I am blessed to have as my mother. There was a really great video that was shown on this (with great music) today at our workshop that I'll put a link to below.

I also attended a division meeting today on diversity and safety at the workplace. It was great because we watched "A Class Devided" which I had already seen in history class (never thought that class would ever come in handy but thank you Mr. Wright). I actually could contribute to the discussion because I had already seen it and a few extra interviews with the people from the movie years later.

I also got a very cute text from my mom. Apparently Lily(the dog) is taking up the swimmer role for the summer... and when I saw the picture of my girl swimming i was so proud. I miss her a lot (an my FAMILY and FRIENDS), but I try to keep positive outlooks in the back of my mind at all times and keep hiking up this seemingly ginormous hill. I have a long way to go this summer (first task being to take an 8.5 hour course and read a 400 page instructional text). But it is nice to have a hiatus here and there for meetings or presentations. All of which inspire and put me in a state of utter AWE.

I really cannot describe this internship in words any more because it is nothing like anything I have ever done in my life before. Bigger than my 5 mile runs, or 6000 yard swims. This is bigger than the pressures of New Trier and bigger than any trip I've ever taken.

The Independence is gratifying but is a HUGE challenge. I've learned that a smile and a good firm handshake always works well. That along with a suit and badge makes you on the A list (hopefully) for interns here at the Glenn Center.

Samantha is awesome... really easy to relate to and fun loving. I like that we all get along well as a group and for recreation night I think I might get a chance to run (how far is DABATABLE).

Peace Faith and Love,
Olivia

I'm HERE

So this was the second day on the job. The first day was awesome however exhausting. There is so much to learn and so much to do. It's like improvising all the time. No plan. I'm just beginning... the pen's in my hand... ending unplanned. I've met SO many influential people so to speak... NETWORKING NETWORKING NETWORKING as I'm told is the credo of this place. Expectations abound. Lots of super motivated students who are very nice and easy to live and get along with. Hadley and Ash are my new friends here. They rock my socks off... The living is nice, i get my own room. I've done some decorating which is kind of coming along.

I met my mentor who is very nice and she took me out to lunch on the first day to the Olive Garden. My project is a little daunting-to create a database to store information on employees and the safety and risk tests they do on rockets. It is nothing like I expected. It's much cooler. I went to a presentation yesterday where we had many many many speakers who explained what the deal is. They said that there are no mistakes and it's no coincidence that I'm there. They said that 4/6 that are involved with NASA get asked back next year and that eventually they will have a job set up. There are various networking picnics and stuff. NASA's pretty sweet... lots of perks about being involved with the gov't. Wish I could give you all my new e-mail which ends in @nasa.gov but it's against policy.

Lots of safety safety safety. But the pace here is FAST and we're expected to keep running this marathon. Up at 5:30am and to work to bed as early as possible. When we can the CREW tries to have some fun... today we played a very competitive game of Ultimate. My co-workers at the office are also a ton of fun and spirit. They are just as into space stuff as I am.

One guy told me to go to this presentation for the Briefing of the Columbia disaster of 2003. Kind of like the engineer showing what went wrong and what steps were taken to fix it. There was some incredible footage from that shuttle mission and others as well as some pretty sweet-high definition photos from space and earth. It was a riveting presentation to say the least. I got his card and the guy who suggested that I go and he offered me a personal tour of their high speed-high impact chamber facility. He also gave me a poster of a shuttle mission (goin' in the room).

The opportunities are truly amazing here and I cannot express how BLESSED I am to be here. I feel every minute an attitude of gratitude (though it may sound like I'm all about myself in my blog, I'm really just trying to relate everything that goes on fro pretty much all of us here). If all I have to complain about is the food (which IS NOT good) I am an extremely blessed and lucky individual. I literally thank my (and EVERY) lucky star I see. It's nice to have those to count on when I miss my family and loved ones at home.

Faith and a WHOLE NEW OUTLOOK,

Olivia S. Armstrong
Intern, Risk &Project Assurance Division
NASA Glenn Research Center

Airplanes

So, I am an hour away from leaving home sweet home. Things are pretty quiet around here. I'm all packed and ready to go. I'm looking forward to new adventures and am terrified at the same time. Not a whole lot to do before I leave now. My brother had work this morning, so we've already said our goodbyes. It's interesting to think how things can change in the matter of a day. No more long, lazy, American days in front of the television set watching the midday news and listening faithfully to a sweaty but accurate, Tom Skilling speak the truth about the weather. I'll post everything that I'm up to on this site... my NASA blog isn't open to the public but, I can copy it into this blog (I hope). Anyhow,
This is NASA Girl signing off from Chi-Town,
Olivia