After one of the weakest winter New Jersey has seen in a few years, it was time to open that shell and break a new dawn of beginnings, because 2012 had the best everything; best things that came out, best experience, and not to mention the best summer.
This summer was a great summer for many INSPIRE students from all areas. There were tons of activities on INSPIRE, the VSE’s, and most of all, the Unconference; all to make this year a bit brighter. It was on the top of the list, the Unconference. Two months before, I got that letter during my class saying I am on the list. I literally jumped out of my chair with excitement and was so excited, I went into the bathroom to call my parents that I was going. Thankfully, it was a sub and not the actual teacher. It was a great honor to be able to attend the Unconference and was a great way to connect to other INSPIRE students from across the country, including Puerto Rico (which is a short distance from the Dominican Republic; part of my nationality).
It was exciting to see people that we have known for online, but there was the 1 hour of terror (like curiosity’s 7 minutes) most of us encountered when we were at KSC. There were a ton of people eating breakfast at the hotel, but nobody would know who was going where. I kind of understood because since most of us didn’t even know who we look liked. So when we entered into one of the buildings, Mr. Gerard greeted us with excitement, got our name tags, and sat down. This is where that hour started, and it was quiet. Many of us just sat and stayed quiet since we were just too afraid to say a word. While the Curiosity landing simulation was playing on the flat screen nearby, it was a few of us that just sat; so I looked at my phone and said “when was this terror going to stop?” At that moment, Steve Chance, the project manager of INSPIRE, and Mr. Gerard came to the front introduced themselves to us.
So now that the terror was over, we separated into teams and never saw the other group until, pretty much the last day. We did some amazing activities including one with LEGO MINDSTORM kits (oh, the middle school memories!) which was my favorite. In addition, we toured the famous rocket garden, saw (not one, but) two space shuttle, Atlantis and Endeavour, which we went under, and saw a helicopter randomly land in front of us with near precision 100 feet away while we say the star fighters.
Although it was fun and awesomeness, we did learn about some interesting things by learning about the RBSP Mission and Nicola Fox, a scientist involved in the Mission from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Also, we had our own student panel where we discussed our thoughts about making INSPIRE better. While doing that, we not only got that 1 hour of terror taken away, but got to meet a ton of people I did not know of at all. It was a blast to see many people I knew and many I did not. Uncon was probably best experience I’ve had and a way to but the icing on the cake for a summer well spent on.
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