More MUST Advice

By Carolina Rojas Ramirez, MUST

My name is Carolina Rojas Ramirez, a 2011 NASA MUST Student. I was born and raised in Bogota, the capital city of Colombia. Five years ago I moved to the United States, and a week later I started attending high school as a freshman. It was not easy due to my poor English: I was basically mute and deaf. In order to improve I had to listen to music and watch TV only in English even if I did not understand (It works!). Six months later my family and I moved to Kentucky from New York, which was a very big change. In the Bluegrass State, I started to improve my English more while I attended high school and even more when I attended community college. Just a few months ago, I graduated from Hopkinsville Community College and transferred to the College of William and Mary to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry.

There are many reasons why I choose the College of William and Mary. Its closeness to home (over the summer my family and I moved from Kentucky to Virginia), awesome reputation, historic background, cool traditions, and academic standards. My choice of major has many reasons as well. I chose a STEM career, because since late elementary I always did better in science than in other subjects (especially literature), and I loved to know how things work. Chemistry explains how matter works which is very important because we are made up of matter, and we posses one of the most beautiful and rarest things in the universe: Life. This is why I choose the Biochemistry track for my major: it combines the sciences of matter and life.

I have enjoyed college so far. There are so many things to do that four years are not enough that is why some people go to graduate school apart from gaining more knowledge! You meet a lot of people, there are many opportunities to gain experiences like internships, and it helps you to prepare for the real world. Since I entered college I have enjoyed many great things, one of the main ones is being able to be part of the NASA family. My first internship opportunity came when I apply online in the NASA internship website. I had always thought that getting into NASA was almost impossible and that just super geniuses could do it. Once I discovered that with just one application I would be able to be considered for many opportunities at NASA I decided to give it a chance. I got accepted, and last summer I worked with polymers and nanotubes at Langley Research Center. Last summer, I also had the huge honor to get accepted into the MUST program which offers a scholarship and an internship (for next year) for minority students.

Some advice about the STEM field: Study hard, make friends (networking), be well rounded (do not focus heavily only on science), and most important ASK QUESTIONS! Many mistakes can be done by not asking questions, like missing a huge life opportunity or blowing up the Chemistry lab by not knowing what to do…

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