Back from NASA; Space camp helps kids think about non-traditional careers, Rotary told

CORNER BROOK - One of the avenues of service the Rotary Cub abides by focuses on vocations.

While that primarily means Rotarians serving others through their own professions, the Rotary Club of Corner Brook put a twist on that by recently supporting an educational trip by a dozen students from St. Peter's Academy in Benoit's Cove to attend a three-day Pathfinder camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.

During the club's weekly luncheon Thursday, members heard from two of those students, Mark Connolly and Shania Paul, and their teacher chaperone, Cherry Harbin.

Harbin had been to the space camp twice before and brought back lessons she learned to teach kids in her classroom. When she went back a third time in April, she had 12 of her Grade 6 and 7 students with her.

She told Rotarians about the visit, including how the school group - which was dubbed Team Orion - learned all kinds of neat information about space exploration and had their horizons vastly expanded by the experience. While it was cool to discover things about the history of space exploration, from sending people to the moon to sending machines to Mars and beyond, the group also got to check out several simulators. In fact, they even got to do a simulated mission of the space shuttle Discovery.

Connolly, who was given the job of commander aboard Discovery, successfully landed the ship as it returned to Earth.

"I had to press a lot of buttons on this humongous board covered in switches and buttons," Connolly told Rotarians. "At the end of the mission, I had to fly the space shuttle onto the runway. Everyone was so surprised and the instructor was really pleased with me because I was one of only a few people who were able to land the shuttle on the runway."

Paul's job, meanwhile, was back on Earth in mission control.

"I got to speak to the people in the spaceship to make sure everything was OK," she said.

Future astronaut?

Connolly, who wants to return to the camp and do a more advanced program there, said he's now thinking of becoming an astronaut.

"Because of this program, I would like to pursue a career as maybe a space shuttle commander, or in flight control or maybe as one of the people who builds the rocket," said Connolly, adding that a strong background in science and math, being in tiptop physical condition and first becoming a pilot with plenty of flying time would be important to becoming an astronaut.

Harbin said getting kids to think about such non-traditional careers is the idea behind the whole experience.

"NASA is not just all about astronauts," she said. "You can do so many different things in engineering and technology."