Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(music)
I always loved biology, and I always knew whatever I had to do in life
it was going to have to do with biology. That was one of my favorite subjects forever.
I love working with life, and with animals and so, I went to school in Puerto Rico
to do biology. I got a bachelors degree in science, in biology. But, I didn't know
what in biology. Everybody in my group was going to be a doctor or a dentist and so there
were not that many choices. I was very lucky to have a professor who was doing a
sabbatical at our school that year from Berkley. He took me as one of his students. After
I took a microbiology class, I fell in love with the subject and started working with
him. That's how I became a microbiologist. My husband had a job with NASA, so we came to
Huntsville, Alabama. We didn' t know what to think of Huntsville, Alabama coming from
Puerto Rico. It was like, oh, my goodness. So, we came here in 1985. He came to work
at NASA, and I went to UAH to finish my masters degree. And by the time I was finishing
my masters, I got a job offer for an opening as a microbiologist and I came to work for
NASA. It was an experience learning English, in the masters degree program and in the
sciences. It was a lot of patient people. I used to come very early at work. And I would
ask the janitor, who was the only one there at that time, to help me spell check my
papers for that day. So, that was my spell checker in the beginning. It took me a while.
I attribute a lot of my spunkiness or that desire to do things that are kind of
out of the box, to my grandmother. She had a lot to do with my ... the way I am
and the way I see the world. She was way ahead of her time. Back then women were
not allowed to do all of the things that women are allowed to do now. She never
let that be a problem for her. So, I think if I have to choose one person, it
would be her. She really wanted the best for me. Even though she wanted me to be
a teacher, and I really didn't want to be one. Working for NASA has been extremely
rewarding. That's just an experience of a lifetime, I think. But the things
I value the most is the experience that I've had, of having a project going from
nothing and just a piece of paper. And having to think of all the reasons or
the ways you can do something. And going through the process of developing those
thoughts, and designing and testing those ideas as a team. Then actually building
whatever it is, and flying it and getting feedback from flight about how it worked
and how is it working. I don't think many people in our center have had that
complete experience of going from a concept to flight hardware. Something that
is making a difference, you know, keeping people alive. That's really cool.