Meet JPL Interns | August 22, 2016
Paving a Pathway to Diversity at NASA and JPL
Brandon Murphy’s family was well accustomed to his months-long jaunts to Virginia, Florida and Texas, the home of whichever NASA facility had offered him an internship that semester. Freshly inspired and equipped with new skills, yet a little homesick, Murphy always returned to North Carolina, where he’d lived and gone to school since the age of 12.
But when his fifth NASA internship rolled around in the spring of 2016, a dream opportunity at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Murphy sat his family down and told them he wouldn’t be coming home this time.
“I packed up my entire house, put it on the back of a truck, and had them ship it here. Then I drove 36 hours from North Carolina to California in El Niño,” said Murphy, who at the time was still finishing up his master’s in computer science at North Carolina A&T State University.
A few years earlier, in the hope of improving his career prospects and “making a difference in the world,” Murphy had set his sights firmly on finding an internship – and eventually, a career – at NASA. When shortly after applying for an internship he got a call from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, he couldn’t believe it. “At first I thought they were joking. I was like, you’re kidding me. You said NASA, right?”
He accepted almost immediately and spent the next four months developing visualizations and software for an airborne mapping instrument. It didn’t take long before he was hooked. “Ever since [that first internship], I applied at NASA every semester and some opportunities showed up that I didn’t even apply for,” said Murphy.
So when he got an internship offer from his top choice, JPL, with just months to go before earning his degree, Murphy decided to risk it all. “I just took a risk and said, I’m going to come to JPL, put my best foot forward and fingers crossed a full-time position opens up for me.”
His parents, military veterans who had tried to instill the values of minimizing risk were understandably worried. But six months after arriving at JPL, and on the eve of his sixth and final internship, Murphy got the position he was waiting for: a full-time gig in JPL’s cyber security group hunting for threats to the laboratory's systems and developing defenses against them.
Diversity in the Pipeline
Murphy’s story is exactly the kind Jenny Tieu is hoping to see more of at JPL. As one of several program coordinators in the laboratory’s Education Office, which brings hundreds of interns and fellows to JPL each year, Tieu focuses specifically on reaching underrepresented students, like Murphy, and bringing them into NASA’s pipeline – a cadre of workshops, internships and professional development designed to produce the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Internships are an important piece of that pipeline, providing hands-on experience and a foot in the door. Once in the pipeline, students are more likely to end up with a career at a NASA center. This year, for example, close to half of JPL’s new employees who recently graduated from college started at the laboratory as interns or fellows, a new record.
But more than just shape the workforce that will design the spacecraft of the future and explore new worlds, the pipeline is, “a great opportunity to cultivate a community of diverse thinkers and innovators who bring unique perspectives from a multitude of backgrounds,” said Tieu.
Promoting diversity in the pipeline involves a number of strategies by JPL and other NASA centers to reach out to schools that enroll high numbers of students who aren't typically well represented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and partner with organizations working to get students involved in those fields.
One agency-wide program, the Minority University Research and Education Project, or MUREP, is what gave Murphy a chance to explore several careers at NASA – and helped him stand out.
"The combination of all the experiences and opportunities that Brandon had at different NASA centers really helped solidify his experience and make him a prime candidate for a full-time position,” said Tieu. “This is really the work of the MUREP community coming together as a team to provide opportunities and prepare students for the workforce.”
Creating diversity is not without its challenges, though. Perhaps the biggest hurdle is simply making sure students know that opportunities exist for them at NASA. The Education Office and its counterparts across the agency are constantly in search of new ways to reach out to students and encourage them to apply.
In his own way, Murphy is too. He says of his six internships, it was important for him to not only do well for himself, but also for his school, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), so places like NASA would continue to seek out interns there. Already that attitude has paid off for at least one classmate who recently stopped Murphy in the school’s computer lab to thank him for setting a good example.
“He said, ‘I just wanted to thank you, because when [NASA Johnson Space Center] called to offer me an internship, they said that because of the work you did, they sought other students from A&T,’” said Murphy. “I was like, wow. He’s really going to get an opportunity to experience the great things that I experienced because I got there and put my best foot forward.”
When the Pipeline Ends?
The ultimate goal of the pipeline is to turn students who are interested in STEM into scientists and engineers. But what happens once the former interns are hired comes down to efforts at each NASA center to wrap them into the unique culture.
In recent years, JPL has built a strong supportive community for employees who are new to the professional world, offering mentorship and networking opportunities that help with retention. Meanwhile, Tieu and others in the Education Office stay connected with former interns and provide them with resources and help from support groups.
So far, for Murphy, who just started his full-time job last week, it feels like everything fits just right. “This is the place that I really feel comfortable in the work that I’m doing and I see the overall goal, the bigger picture,” said Murphy. “If this is how work is going to be for the rest of my career, I could get used to this.”
His parents have gotten used to it, too. “My mom’s really spilling it all out on Facebook, so I know she’s proud of me,” said Murphy.
Explore our Intern page to learn more about opportunities at JPL and NASA, and apply.
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TAGS: Internships, Fellowships, Programs, MUREP, NASA, Black History Month
Edu News | December 12, 2011
Professor Inspires with Help from NASA Curriculum Improvement Program
Growing up in the Philippines, Amelito Enriquez knew nothing of high expectations. He wasn't expected to be the first student in his high school's history to go to a university - especially for a degree in engineering. He wasn't expected to receive the highest grade point average in the engineering department's history -- he wasn't even expected to be more than a "C" student. He wasn't expected to continue his education in the United States and become one of the country's most inspirational educators. And he wasn't expected to receive a presidential honor for his career-long commitment to helping underprivileged youth succeed.
"I like proving people wrong," said Enriquez, a professor of engineering and mathematics at Cañada College in Redwood City, Calif., who recently received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Over the years, he certainly has.
It was sixteen years ago that Enriquez first discovered his calling. "After grad school, I started applying for teaching jobs at four-year institutions," said Enriquez. "Being from the Philippines, I didn't know about community colleges. When I realized what they were, I thought, this is me. I knew I could really make a difference at a community college." Turning down multiple offers at four-year institutions, Enriquez began his career at Cañada College in 1995 and never looked back - except when his mentor periodically phoned him to see if he'd reconsider the university route. He wouldn't.
Enriquez's students start very much like he did. They come from disadvantaged backgrounds where expectations are at a minimum, if not nonexistent. "The students I work with score high enough to be accepted into community college," said Enriquez. "But their math and science scores are below average. A lot of them are at the high school algebra level."
Inspiring these students to go from barely getting by to reaching way beyond anyone's expectations is Enriquez's passion, and he achieves it through a variety of grants and programs. One such program - which Enriquez says has given his students the rare opportunity to get hands-on research experience - is NASA's Curriculum Improvements Partnership Award for the Integration of Research, or CIPAIR. CIPAIR brings minority college students and their teachers to NASA centers for research projects aimed at improving curriculums for future generations of students. Through their experiences with the NASA program, Enriquez and his students have so far contributed to more than a dozen curriculum improvements at Cañada College, adding activities and lessons on launching satellites, designing a Mars rover and more.
"As a result of CIPAIR, our students are more confident about succeeding in a four-year school," said Enriquez. "And almost all of them are now considering advanced degrees."
In early December, Enriquez flew to Washington D.C. to accept his mentorship award from President Barack Obama. While Enriquez considers it a great honor to be recognized for his hard work, he says that in a way, he already feels rewarded. "As part of the application process, my students had to write letters about why I should be recognized," he said. "A lot of students wrote in. Just reading those letters was really more of an honor than I could ask for."
It's also proof that inspiration goes a long way. "That's the best thing a teacher can give to a student," said Enriquez. "It's inspiration. It's to get kids to do something bigger than themselves."
TAGS: Community College, Educators, Fellowships, Cañada College