In celebration of Girls in STEM Day, Victoria College hosted Abigail Mooreside, a NASA spaceflight operations scientist, for a presentation Saturday aimed at encouraging young women to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Mooreside is currently training at Johnson Space Center to become a ground control specialist flight controller for the International Space Station.
The annual event is held as part of a statewide initiative promoting STEM education for girls. Leaders within Victoria College’s Division of Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Physical Education say they use the opportunity each year to expose students to professionals working in a variety of technical fields.
Past speakers have included representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Mooreside, who works in physics and engineering, is the featured speaker for the program’s fifth year.
“We hear all the time that representation is very, very important,” said Janelle Espinoza, Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Physics department chair at Victoria College. “You need to see people who are like you doing things that you might want to do before you realize that that’s a possibility. So that is really what we want to do here, is make sure that girls in this area understand that these are fields that women are in. You can go do this. And I think that’s key, because you know, depending on your experience, these guys don’t know what all is out there.”
Mooreside told the audience she did not initially plan to pursue a career in the space industry. Growing up, she hoped to become a veterinarian. That changed after she spoke with a recruiter from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at a high school college fair, where she later enrolled to study spaceflight operations.
Loading …
After graduating, Mooreside worked at NASA Langley Research Center, researching spaceflight medical operations and contributing to engineering work on the Artemis Human Landing System missions before moving into her current role as a spaceflight operations scientist.
During the event, audience members submitted questions on note cards that were read by a student moderator. The discussion covered Mooreside’s career path, challenges she faced along the way, impostor syndrome and how she found her way into spaceflight operations. She also shared her favorite space-themed movie, The Martian.
“I definitely think I have had setbacks,” Mooreside said. “One thing that always kept me going is, I’m a person that’s very passionate about space and this is what I want to do. Initially going into this, I knew that there were going to be a lot of challenges, and it was going to be difficult to get where I’m going. But growing up, I always expected that if there’s something that you really want, no matter how hard it is, just keep being dedicated to that and keep working really hard, you’ll eventually get to where you want to be. It might not look the way that you thought it would, but eventually that path will lead you there. What I’ve been telling myself throughout the years is like, ‘Hey, maybe right now it’s not looking like I thought, but you will get there eventually.’”
Mooreside said that despite challenges common in highly technical fields, she feels confident she is where she is meant to be.
“I strongly believe everything happens for a reason,” Mooreside said. “Throughout my life, we were like, you’ll know, there’s certain moments when you’ll know, ‘Hey, you’re in the right place. You aren’t doing the right thing.’ Embry Riddle felt like that for me, and then there’s been other things that I’ve tried to do that just haven’t worked out. So it’s kind of like, this is going really well for me, and it’s what I’ve always wanted to do. And so I think all the puzzle pieces fit together for me to be here.”
Among the attendees were Gabriella Messler, 18, and Lara Henriquez, 12, who said hearing from a NASA scientist broadened their understanding of career possibilities within STEM fields.
For them, seeing someone who works at NASA visit Victoria was especially meaningful.
“A lot of girls were told, ‘Oh, you don’t have to do stuff like that,’” Messler said. “A lot of these things, it’s like, directed towards boys, toys, clothing, stuff like that. So since we’re young, we’re not really given this type of thing. We should have a better opportunity to go into these types of fields. Even attending small events like this, as long as we’re like bringing some sort of publicity to it, and like shedding light on these types of things, I think it provides better insight for other girls who are interested.”
Messler said the presentation also sparked her interest in how health care fields intersect with space operations. She plans to study nursing at Victoria College, while Henriquez hopes to pursue engineering in the future.
“I think it’s interesting to see how medicine is like being integrated into aeronautics,” Messler said. “We usually see it as just engineering, but we don’t really get to see all the nitty gritty about how to live in space and how your body changes in space and such. It was really interesting to hear about that.”
Lindsey Plotkin is a multimedia reporter for the Victoria Advocate. Contact her at lindsey.plotkin@vicad.com.