Exciting careers await, astronaut tells students

WENDOVER — Gov. Olene Walker and a NASA astronaut told students here Wednesday morning that great things are expected of them.

"I expect to see some of your faces at NASA in 10 to 15 years," astronaut Sandra Magnus told the small, 80 percent Hispanic student body at Wendover Junior/Senior High School. The town in the desert west of the salt flats on the Utah-Nevada border has a population fewer than 1,500 and a graduating class of only 18.

Wendover Junior/Senior High School was chosen as a NASA Explorer School for 2004 last month, meaning its math and science teachers will be specially trained over the summer with new teaching resources and technical tools. It is one of only 100 nationwide and the only one in Utah.

When NASA heard that Walker would visit the school Wednesday to promote education as part of the Governor's Initiative on Families Today, they decided to send Magnus to join the governor in a special presentation.

The students, many of whom live in the several blocks of broken-down houses and trailers lining dusty, uneven, pothole-ridden streets, sat on the hard bleachers, many with yearbooks in their laps and chins in their hands, watching a video about President Bush's goals for moon and Mars landings.

Magnus, who worked on the International Space Station in 2002, told the students that they are needed for the future of space exploration.

She came from a small town herself, Magnus said, and so did many of her crew members on the space station. A few were even the children of Hispanic immigrants.

"We come from all walks of life, all parts of the country and all backgrounds," she said.

Magnus, in her blue astronaut jumpsuit, explained how exciting launching into space and working with scientists from around the world in the space station was. She encouraged students to study science and engineering so they can help with future missions to Mars.

"Look at the opportunities you have today," Walker said after Magnus' presentation.

When she was a little girl, Walker said, a friend predicted people would walk on the moon in her lifetime and Walker laughed at her.

"That was 35 years ago — think of what could happen in your lifetime," she said.

Representatives from the State Office of Hispanic Affairs told the students that the opportunities presented that morning were real.

"You have a greater responsibility to prove yourselves in a society where we're often considered second-class citizens," said Luz Robles, vice chairwoman of the Hispanic Advisory Council.

"It is possible to go to school, it is possible to get a degree," she said.

Hispanic students from the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College were present to prove the point and award Wendover graduate Lorina Guiza with a $1,000 scholarship they had raised.

Walker then presented special awards to Maria Cortez, Ana Martinez, Jose Trujillo and Rebecca Del Muro for being Young Hispanic Achievers.

"These are students whose lives are about service," said principal Stephen Lawrence.

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