‘Aspire 2 Inspire’ Aims to Empower Young Women

November 21, 2011—Go ahead, prove your naysayers wrong. That’s what NASA is encouraging girls to do. NASA is trying to empower middle school girls in its expanded Women@NASA website. The revised website features Aspire 2 Inspire, a new feature aimed at helping girls explore education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM fields. The site features four short films and one overview film that explore the careers and backgrounds of early career women who work for NASA in each of the STEM areas. So you can hear from Antja Chambers, who works in the portable life support systems, on how a spacesuit really is a mini spaceship meant to keep astronauts safe. Or hear C.J Kanelakos, a mechanical design engineer who worked on Robonaut, talk about how she is helping to design and build legs for this special robot now living on the ISS. Or learn about Carlie Zumwalt who helps give directions to vehicles as they are entering the atmosphere to make sure they land safely or Tara Ruttley, who helps coordinate and communicate the findings of experiments conducted on the International Space Station. The videos not only tell you what these amazing women do, but how they got there as well. “I had to believe I could actually do it before I actually went out and did it,” Ruttley said. The site also features four Twitter feeds where girls can interact with and submit questions to the young women featured in the films. “We have an opportunity to reach out to the next generation and inspire today’s girls to pursue science and technology careers,” said Rebecca Keiser, the agency’s representative to the White House Council on Women and Girls. “Expanding opportunities in these fields will give our country perspectives and expertise that will help us out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the world. It’s key to our future.”		TC.J. Kanelakos designs and builds robots at NASA. She is one of 12 young women featured on NASA’s expanded Women@NASA website. Photo credit: NASA Antja Chambers works in the portable life support systems, assuring that astronauts are kept safe in their spacesuits. She is also featured on NASA’s expanded Women@NASA website. Photo credit: NASA

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