Megan Phillips, Merced College student and NASA intern

MERCED – NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) selected Megan Phillips of Merced to attend the NCAS Virtual Experience, July 19-29, 2021.
Megan successfully completed the five-week online course and earned a spot among 186 other community college students from across the United States that were selected to attend the nine-day virtual onsite experience. 

The students selected for virtual NCAS get to learn all about NASA and STEM careers. The experience is based around a design mission where each crew must decide if they are going to the moon or mars. Each crew assigns members to different jobs, and I was the mission schedule analyst and the computer engineer for my crew. Each crew builds their mission and must strategize in multiple ways, including scheduling, budgeting, and outreach, to have a successful mission and present it effectively.

During this mission the students also get to engage in many different subject matter expert meetings with NASA employees and interns and receive invaluable advice. Examples of these meetings are Networking and Resume advice which have already helped me immensely. We also got to do virtual 360 tours with the google cardboard virtual reality headset that NCAS provided us and learn about each of the centers. 

During the closing ceremony Megan’s team, Gemini Green, received the award of Best Mission Patch and they will be receiving awards. Great Job Megan!

The Minority University Research and Education Program, or MUREP, funds NCAS and supports underrepresented students in STEM fields and gives them more opportunities. 

This was a great experience and great introduction into NASA and is definitely a great way for NASA to continue the education of space and their research especially with the younger generation.