Astronauts Scholarship Foundation provides budding scientists career opportunities – USA Today
When Alan Shepard, John Glenn and the other five Project Mercury astronauts were living and training in Houston during the early 1960s, they became friends with Henri Landwirth, the owner of a Cocoa Beach, Florida, motel where they stayed before their space flights. Landwirth, who was a successful Jewish businessman, philanthropist and Holocaust survivor, began to encourage the Mercury astronauts to begin funding scholarships for college students who were studying science. Those conversations had staying power and in 1984 the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) was formed with Landwirth giving an initial $10,000 to incorporate and staff the organization.
The first seven winners in 1986 received $1,000 scholarships, funds donated from each of the Mercury 7 astronauts’ speaking engagements. Today the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation awards more than 70 scholarships valued at up to $15,000 each with funds augmented by corporate and individual donors. To date 921 STEM students have been awarded scholarships worth over $10 million.In 1987, Lisa Schott won a scholarship while majoring in mechanical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. The scholarship meant a lot, she says, because it was “created by some of my childhood heroes and they [had] the confidence in me to support my education. It was so exciting and inspirational,” Schott says. Wanting to give back, she began volunteering for ASF after starting her first engineering job in Orlando, Florida. Now vice chair of ASF’s board of directors, she says, “Thirty-five years later I’m still involved.”
This year, 74 students at ASF’s 51 partnering universities received scholarships valued at up to $15,000 each, but the benefits extend far beyond the money. ASF’s President and CEO Colleen Middlebrooks says the scholarship “is definitely not a one and done.” She explains that travel grants allow the winners to attend the annual Innovators Symposium and Gala, an event that gives winners the opportunity to talk with astronauts, donors, industry executives and other like-minded students. These early connections also often lead to future job offers, internships and support that can help a career skyrocket.Scholarship winners are also invited to the Astronaut Hall of Fame induction ceremony and given a chance to participate in various trainings and STEM events around the country. “We’re a family — astronauts, donors, sponsors and the winners. Every year we pick the best and brightest STEM students [to join us],” says retired Col. Curtis L. Brown Jr., U.S. Air Force, and chairman of ASF’s board of directors. Growing up in a small North Carolina town, Brown didn’t dream of becoming an astronaut — “I just wanted to fly,” he says. After retiring from the Air Force, Brown flew six Space Shuttle missions from 1992 to 1999, commanding three and piloting three, including the one that took John Glenn (by then 77 years old and a U.S. Senator) into space for the last time.Students majoring in any STEM field interested in a scholarship can apply if their university is an ASF partner. Schott says that the partnering universities are required to screen their applicants and choose the top two or three. From those names ASF selects the winners. Scholarships are awarded for the students’ junior year and based on continued academic excellence and extracurricular work outside the classroom, can be extended into their senior year.“We would like to add two or three universities and donors as partners each year” Brown says adding that this strategy will help the U.S. “stay on top” in space exploration and science.
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
