Every kid goes through the “I want to be an astronaut” phase, but very few of those kids are able to achieve that far-out goal. Working for NASA has been a dream for Junior Madeley Nichols since she was little and now she is one step closer to fulfilling her childhood goals.

Madeley Nichols just got accepted into HDS (High School Aerospace Scholars) which is an authentic STEM learning experience for Texas high school juniors to engage with NASA’s missions and become the next generation of explorers.

“It’s just a program for NASA,” Nichols said. “Doing this kind of sets me on the path to becoming an intern for NASA and that’s what I’m trying to reach too”

Getting any opportunities from NASA is nothing to take lightly. Being noticed by them takes hard work and dedication.

“So I worked really hard to get to this point,” Nichols said. “The really ironic thing about all this is that if I never took this engineering class, I never would have been able to do this because I would have never been able to meet my teacher, Mr. Wilkerson. I was actually trying to change out of the class because I thought it was the wrong class at first. But yeah, then I realized that it wasn’t and then I started getting presented with opportunities and stuff like with NASA.”

Being accepted into a program like this is a great opportunity to work with NASA personnel and possibly earn scholarships for college.

“I actually first got accepted into it while I was sitting at my lunch table,” Nichols said. “I freaked out because it’s been like a dream to be involved in anything with NASA. it’s just been like a lifelong dream, you know, and this is helping me get started working there.”