August 05, 2024

COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri soccer senior midfielder Leah Selm recently returned from a visit to NASA’s Launch Services Program Student Volunteer Experience. She reflects on her experience and how the program will prepare her for a future career in mechanical engineering.

How did this opportunity come about with NASA?

This opportunity came from the Momentum Institute. NASA was putting together a program for student athletes with unconventional schedules, and put together this week-long program for athletes who have to go back to school early to train. Through the Momentum Institute, I was given the opportunity to interview for this position and then ultimately go to it.

Why are you pursuing a career or major in mechanical engineering?

I love solving problems and I’m really interested in design and innovation, so I think through mechanical engineering, I can tap into those aspects and find a career that I’d be happy in in the future.

What did this opportunity teach you about your desired career?

Through this opportunity, I was able to shadow different engineers at NASA and see a lot of the different projects they work on and sit in on meetings. Through this opportunity, I learned it’s a career I could see myself going into and I found how interested I was in space, and it’s an industry I want to be a part of in the future.

What was the most surprising part for you or something you were impressed by?

I would say the most impressive thing was watching a rocket launch. It was the first time I’ve seen one in person, and it was honestly spectacular. I think watching it in real life puts into perspective how many different people have to work on it, and how crazy it is people can actually make it happen. We also got to tour a couple of different facilities and see a space shuttle and rocket in real life. Seeing them up close shows how large they are and it was really cool to see that.

How will this opportunity benefit you post-graduation?

This will benefit me in a lot of different ways. One way is the networking with professionals in an industry I want to be a part of in the future. Being able to connect and talk with them and hear their advice for my future career will benefit me. I think one of the main pieces of advice that stuck with me was from a program manager. They said “when an opportunity knocks, open the door”. I think it tells you to take any opportunity and take a chance with it, because you never know what will happen and how it could benefit you in the future. This opportunity is kind of like that. It was something was presented to me, I decided to do it, and I learned a lot and grew from it, and it was a really amazing opportunity, so I’m glad I took part in it.

What did you learn, if anything, from the other collegiate athletes that were there?

I think I learned how special it is to be collegiate athletes and how intense our role is. I mean, we train a lot and we do a lot of hard things. We all have great mentalities and are very driven and hardworking. I think through being with different athletes in different sports, I learned how we can bring our sports into a professional career after college and how we can tap into that for the future.

Why are opportunities like this one important for college athletes?

I think it’s really important because we all spend a lot of time and energy in our sports, but at the end of the day, our sports are short term. At the end of it, we’re going to have to find a career. So I think it’s important to set yourself up for success afterwards. This opportunity, for example, was something specifically designed for student athletes, and it gave us an opportunity to get some real world experience in a career we could want to pursue. I think it’s important to take any opportunity you’re given and try things out. Out and see what you learn from it.

NASA’s Launch Services Program

NASA’s LSP’s Student Volunteer Experience provided the funding for Selm’s experience along with seven other collegiate athletes. The NASA Launch Services Program is responsible for procurement of launch services for NASA uncrewed missions and oversight of launch integration and launch preparation activity, providing added quality and mission assurance to meet program objectives. LSP operates under the NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate.

This story was originally published by Mizzou Athletics here.