NASA Academic Year Paid
Internship Program
The District of Columbia
Space Grant Consortium is pround to present our
very talented 2005 NASA interns:
Andre
Bierzynski - NASA Goddard
Resnik Boone - NASA Goddard
Chibuike
Nwakamma - NASA Goddard
Gabriel
Okolski
- NASA Headquarters
Maria
Rivera
- NASA Goddard
Ramsey
Smith - NASA Goddard
Johanna
Teske - NASA Goddard
Kawandeep
Virdee - NASA Goddard
Lauren
Walls - NASA Headquarters
Gabriel Okolski
NASA Headquarters
Gabriel is a junior at The George Washington University
majoring in Political Science. Working at the NASA
Headquarters History Division, Gabriel is involved
with a number of exciting hands-on projects. He
is helping to get two books, one on the Galileo
Mission to Jupiter the other on NASA's Plum Brook
Nuclear Reactor Facility, published. In addition
to these projects he is also involved with a major
update of the Great Images in NASA Photo Archive.
Gabriel loves answering the public's information
requests to the office, and is excited to get people
interested in the space program.
Andre Bierzynski
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
I've been working with Joe Nuth, studying the formation
of Interstellar Dust. Honestly, I considered how it
could be relevant to Space Exploration, but doing
the research has opened my eyes to how broad a field
it is. Space Exploration, as I've come to realize,
spans further than planets and space crafts, but rather
into the minute constituents of the possible origins
of the Universe.
Johanna Teske
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The first word that comes to mind when
I think of my time at Goddard is humbling. The people
I work with and around are doing cutting-edge research
in a field that tries to explain the way our whole
universe works, and how it all began. Those are fascinating
questions, but not easy ones. My mentor is Demos Kazanas,
and one thing he is doing is describing a theory of
black holes that doesn’t end in a singularity.
That's what I'm working on right now with another
intern – we're trying to plot the orbits of
photons inside black holes.
Kawandeep Virdee
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
People are very friendly, always a greeting
as I walk down the hall to my office. My colleagues
happily answer any of my questions. The places I have
gone and the opportunities I have obtained from this
internship make it a worthwhile experience.
Chibuike Nwakamma
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
My internship assignment is with the
Parts, Packaging, and Assemply Technologies Department
at NASA Goddard. My work assignment includes testing
of component parts like tantalum capacitors to determine
the failure rate and reliability at different voltage
levels. The process in determining the failure rates
involves performing leakage current (polarization
and depolarization) testing and surge testing.
Lauren Walls (with John Glenn)
NASA Headquarters
I was fortunate enough to have my internship
extended for a second semester at NASA Headquarters.
In my experiences I have met with leaders from NASA,
the U.S. Government and international space agencies
that have created programs and agreements to make
history for space exploration. It is an honor to be
part of such groundbreaking and historical affairs.
Additionally, I have been able to attend several events
that honored NASA employees and astronauts. It was
at these events where I met Buzz Aldrin, John Young,
John Glenn and others. These elaborate and unimaginable
occasions were extraordinary but it was the people
within External Relations that have made my experience
the most rewarding. Each of them set an example for
me that I hope to emulate in some way in my life.
The work, the environment and the people are positive,
encouraging, and challenging. I am proud to be back
at NASA.
Maria Rivera
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
This is one experience I will never forget. When
I came to NASA, I had in my
mind that I was going to be able to write and read
computer programs because
that is what I like. But, when my mentor told me I
was going to do research
on semantic web and web agents I felt disappointment.
However, now I feel
glad that I am doing this Internship because I have
learned so much about
artificial intelligence, which is twice more interesting
than writing a
simple program. I think it is incredible how humans
can make a computer
almost think like a person and learn from human contact.
This is one of the
greatest experiences I have ever had. What else could
I expect from working
in one organization that’s goal is to explore
the wonders of the universe?
Ramsey Smith
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
This internship has been a very valuable experience
for me. My main objective for applying for this internship
was to increase my worth as a potential candidate
for employment with NASA. In my research group we
study molecular atmospheric constituents of planets
and satellites in our solar system using Infrared
Heterodyne Spectroscopy (IRHS). The most rewarding
aspect of this internship is it has put me in a position
to collaborate with scientists who are leaders in
their field.
Site
last updated: November 12, 2007
The
DCSGC is funded through a NASA training grant.
This site conforms
with section 508 accessibility standards.
Site
designed and maintained by:
Eric L. Day and Megan
R. Kemble
©1995-2007 DCSGC all rights reserved.
| 
