Sunday June 3rd
And so it begins. The most memorable summer of their lives. Nine students. One cat. One goal: to have a summer that can only be described as legendary.
Spencer was the first to arrive in Cleveland, jumping the gun and arriving Saturday night with his dad. Unfortunately due to unintuitive operation hours, they are unable to take in all of the sites they had hoped.
First thing Sunday morning, Nathan was the first to land, followed quickly by a trip to the store. Next to land was Brian. Brian, Nathan and Molly then squeezed into the pickup truck for a first exposure to Giant Eagle. Then the Molly Taxi was off again, this time to Akron to pick up Kathleen. After a very confusing conversation with Kathleen’s mother and some (luckily free) WiFi, Kathleen joined the others at HSS. In the meantime, Kirsti, Gina, and Jacob arrived safe and sound.
That evening the group headed over the Harry Buffalo, joined by some family and friends of the Academy interns, for some initial group bonding and some great buffalo. The crew retired to their rooms to prepare for the early alarms.
Monday June 4th
The bleary eyed interns rose bright and early to be at Glenn by 7:00AM. After breakfast at Glenn cafeteria and receiving their temporary badges, the students arrived for a three-hour marathon of center orientation. A wealth of information was thrown at them and before they could catch their breath they were whisked off by their mentors. The rest of the work day was filled with badging appointments and long, frustrating phone calls with IT to set up their NASA computers.
Due to an ill placed rebooting of the badging system during Jacob and Kirsti’s badging procedures, the 4:00 Academy introduction meeting commenced at 4:10, and concluded with Dr. Kankam giving an informative description of the Academy proceedings. The RA’s retired to Homestead Studio Suites for a brief hiatus in the onslaught before their first RAP session.
Tuesday June 5th
Tuesday: a day that will go down in history. But this was no ordinary Tuesday. This was the date of the 7th Transit of Venus observation in human history. The Academy students got the incredible opportunity to be involved in the transit itself.
But first, work. Despite the monumental nature of the day, work was nothing special. The students finally got access to their computers. The students got to hear a lecture on the history of the Venus Transit where they got protective eye-ware to assist in their safe viewing.
After work, the RAs headed out to Edgewater Park to take part in the Transit of Venus Viewing. Joined by Macie, Melanie, Daniel and Harkirat of the Aero Academy, the group scoped out an ideal spot on the pier and watched the transit. Soon after, the academites went down in history. They became the only academies in history to complete their group project before the first week is over with their spectacular sun-safe binoculars. Not only are they practical, but they are fashionable! Reserve your pair today for the Transit of Venus in 2117!
Clouds rolled in and the windswept interns rolled out to forage for food. They attempted to go to Melt, but there was a 2 hour wait. Instead they decided to go to the local Chipotle. After a productive discussion of group project ideas, they retired to HSS.
Wednesday June 6th
Wednesday was the first real day of work for the interns, not tainted by lectures on Venus or phone calls to IT. The day went normally with a small trip to the NASA Glenn Exchange store during lunch.
After work the RA’s met up to discuss the group project. They entered the conference room with a few shaky ideas and left the conference room with two, less shaky ideas. While waiting for Molly to finish rock climbing, the RA’s commenced with some much needed group bonding. By the time Molly arrived they already had a group cheer and had created a rough movie list for everyone to see this summer. Once Molly joined, it was back to business, and they discussed the two group projects they had in mind.
After the meeting, Nathan ditched to work on his Med School applications and the rest of the group watched Zombieland.
Thursday June 7th
Another unremarkable day at work passed. They worked. They ate. They worked some more. Then they left. After work, the group headed to Giant Eagle to pick up some much needed groceries and Nathan then left on a “quick run” that got him impressively lost.
Then the group got together for a few teambuilding activities. To warm up, they had to move a marble across the room using only pieces of a foam pool noodle. Next, they had to get close and personal, forming an amoeba and racing across the room. The race between the two amoebas was a close one, but an enthusiastic dive by Brian finalized the win by the four person amoeba.
The final teambuilding activity was a survival scenario. The team landed on the moon and had to rifle through the undamaged supplies to determine what was most important for the 200 mile trek across the lunar surface to the mothership. And good news! The group survived and made it to the mother ship, yet Brian suffered a broken femur when launched into the air by the parachute silk in a futile attempt to catch the attention of the mothership using the flare and the FM solar powered radio transceiver. Luckily, the team carried the first aid kit and was able to set the bone and drag him along on the inflatable life raft.
Friday June 8th
Work was highlighted by a lecture of the theoretical fluid dynamics of turbulent flow over a flat plate by one of the Senior Technologists in the Research and Technology Directorate.
At the end of the work day, both Aero and Space presented their group topics to Dr. Kankam for approval and feedback. The Space Academy students presented their two ideas for a dropsonde and a re-entry vehicle. Both ideas went over well and now the team is finalizing the project topic they will pursue.
After the presentation, the group went strawberry picking at a nearby farm. While picking six buckets of strawberries, the team gave birth to the rotten strawberry bombs. Luckily the only casualty was Kirsti’s shoe. They then dropped Kathleen off for a healthy run in the park and ate some fatty, greasy Chinese food to counteract the healthy strawberries they had just consumed.
Saturday June 9th
SATURDAY. SATURDAY. SATURDAY. One day only, Team Gina and team Spencer go head to head, battling for the pride of their academy. Don’t miss this impressive display of competitive awesome! Let the scavenger hunt commence!
6.5 hours later, Jake bought $50 worth of books, Batman was spotted by giggling teens in Tower City, and both teams had an impressive amount of competitive spirit. They met at Hard Rock Café for a victory dinner.
After dinner, the concert Molly had her heart set on was sold out, so they retired to the hotel to watch, well I can’t say… The first rule is you don’t talk about it. And coincidentally, the second rule is you don’t talk about it…
Sunday June 10th
Gina, Molly and some aero tykes
Went for an early morning hike
The group showed gall
To find cool waterfalls
At Cuyahoga Valley Park.
The others went to the Science Center
Where they constructed an epic tower
It stood in majesty,
Then toppled over loudly,
And Angry Kathleen became a thrower.
Molly fed them with her cooking,
And there was a scheduled ring,
Where NAAA told of their hack
And how the RAs could give back.
They ended with an Apollo 13 viewing.