海角社区

By Tiffany King

Senior Lily Heidger is capping off her time at the 海角社区 with an internship with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The unexpected surprise came about because of a summer research project.

Heidger will be graduating in May with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science with a concentration in sustainability, policy, and management. Last summer, she participated in the International Collaborative Multidisciplinary Investigations Through Undergraduate Research Experiences (I-CEMITURE) program hosted by Georgia Southern University. She was supposed to spend her summer at the University of Lorraine in 脡pinal, France to research the thermal treatment of biomass. However, due to the pandemic, the format of her research opportunity changed. She instead worked remotely with her assigned professor in France and switched her research to looking at the relationship between urban climate and sociodemographics. Although things didn鈥檛 go as planned, Heidger embraced her research experience and took advantage of the opportunity to present her summer research at the American Geophysical Union conference in New Orleans in December 2021. Heidger was presenting her research poster in a hall filled with other presenters when she was asked an unexpected question.

鈥淚 was presenting my poster and there were a bunch of people asking me questions. This one lady who had asked a question pulled me aside and asked, 鈥榃ould you be interested in an internship with NASA?鈥� I was so taken aback and surprised. I said, 鈥楢bsolutely!鈥� and she told me to email her to let her know when I鈥檓 free this week for an interview,鈥� Heidger said.

Two days later, Heidger had a 10-minute interview to intern for NASA, and less than a week later, she was informed that she had gotten the internship.

鈥淪he asked if I would be interested in an environmental justice internship with NASA, which was even more confusing because you don鈥檛 think of NASA with environmental justice. I didn鈥檛 know they did anything like that.鈥� Heidger said.

Her internship is within NASA Headquarters, specifically earth data systems. She is helping to organize NASA datasets to find data that is useful for environmental justice and different projects across NASA, such as water quality and air quality data. The goal is to make the datasets more accessible for communities. Her internship is part-time and she works remotely, allowing her to meet people from all over the US and US territories virtually who are working for NASA.

Heidger always seems to catch her family and friends off guard. First it was the research experience opportunity in France, now it鈥檚 her work with NASA.

鈥淢y dad joked, 鈥極h yea, NASA approached me in College. Nope, that never happened to me,鈥� They were just as amazed and proud as I was.鈥� she said laughing. 鈥淭he day I interviewed at the conference, I had two of my professors on the phone just to talk through it. Dr. Deemy (assistant professor of environmental science) kept saying 鈥楾his is a career-changer. This is a career-maker. This is going to be awesome. Your hard work is paying off. It鈥檚 all coming together.鈥� They were all just so proud and excited for me.鈥�

Her internship is giving her much to consider for her future career. She鈥檚 working with people whose jobs are what she describes as in-between areas.  

鈥淎 lot of them have research backgrounds, but they鈥檙e not specifically research and they鈥檙e not specifically in academia. They鈥檙e not politicians and aren鈥檛 writing policies. They鈥檙e in this in-between area of research and data to help influence and guide policy. I love that,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o many of these different positions are interesting to me鈥攖he different things they get to do, what they鈥檙e working on and publishing. Everybody just loves what they鈥檙e doing and they鈥檙e making progress. I can totally see myself in one of these in-between roles in the future. I don鈥檛 want to be a politician. I could be a researcher, but I want to be active and involved with progress.鈥�

Heidger still pinches herself when she thinks about her internship. She was excited to be given the opportunity, but then worried about how she would be able to manage it all with classes. Would she have to drop some classes? Would she graduate on time?

鈥淚 could hear Dr. Deemy in the back of my mind saying 鈥楾ake the chance!鈥� I鈥檓 so glad that I did. The same with the research experience over the summer and conference. Those were opportunities that were presented to me, and I took a chance,鈥� she said.

Heidger was able to attend the conference due to funding provided by the I-CEMITURE program and degree program.  She encourages other students to take every opportunity they are given.

Heidger is still determining what she鈥檒l do for the fall after her internship ends in May. She is considering finding a job, another internship, or graduate school鈥攚ith Arizona State University as her top pick.