Pupils’ passion rewarded with ‘super space trip’ to Nasa
TWO BOLANDhigh school pupils are over the moon after being selected to attend the United Space School at Nasa.
Alet-Mari van der Merwe, a Grade 11 pupil at Stellenbosch High School and Antoni Meyer, a Grade 11 pupil at Paarl Gymnasium, are jetting off to Houston, Texas, later this month where they will be joining pupils from several other countries.
According to the United Space School’s Facebook page, the pupils were required to do intensive space science assignments before the start of the programme and, once they arrive in Houston, will be interviewed and placed in teams that will design a mission to Mars based on the inputs from lectures, interviews and the Nasa library.
The two pupils were chosen after a strenuous local selection process, including interviews by Young Wings Projects.
Applications were received from across the country.
“It will be a wonderful experience. Learners from 24 countries will be on the programme and I know I will benefit greatly from the interaction.
“We also had to complete five challenging projects and I have already learnt a lot more than I thought possible through the research I had to do and this even before I have left South Africa,” said Alet-Mari, who was invited for tea with Stellenbosch mayor Conrad Sidego earlier this week.
She said she was looking forward to meeting young people from different parts of the world.
Meyer, who lives in Melkbosstrand, said he loved “designing things and working with my hands” and dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer.
He said the space school would be the “best job shadowing experience I could possibly get”.
“This programme will take me right inside Nasa and is an opportunity to see up close what exactly I will do one day,” he said.
“This is also not about being the top student at school, but about having a passion.”