COMMENTARY

Astronaut tells youth how to reach the stars

Mae C. Jemison has soared across the heavens as an astronaut, but she speaks in a down-to-earth way about pursuing careers in science and technology.

Jemison, the first African-American woman astronaut, addressed a mostly female audience of hundreds recently at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Starr Symposium, which brings nationally known experts to town to examine ways to eliminate barriers women face. Jemison credits her parents for helping her maintain her self-confidence.

A child in Chicago during the 1960s, she witnessed tumultuous change in the United States and the world. The civil rights movement grew at the same time America put a man on the moon.

Each event inspired her. “I wanted to be part of it,” Jemison said, even though neither the country nor the world at that time put much value in African Americans like her.

Still, she imagined herself in space long before she actually made the journey. As a girl, she would stare at the stars and knew she would someday get closer to them.

Her strong message to young people was to believe in themselves. “That young girl was the most important, cherished part of me,” she told the spellbound audience. “I believed in myself and in the goodness of the universe.”

She went on to earn degrees in chemical engineering and medicine and founded and led two medical technology companies. She also described a great love for cats and the arts.

She spent six years as an astronaut for NASA, including a 1992 trip into space on the shuttle Endeavour.

A UMKC student next to me wrote down a quote Jemison shared that was made for women and girls, and left the audience laughing: “A woman who strives to be like a man lacks ambition.”

She encouraged girls, women and people of color to not be afraid to be themselves.

“Ask yourself: What difference does it makes if you have a place at the table and act like everyone else and mind your table manners? I had to bring experiences from Chicago to NASA. Use your place at the table.”

Jemison also advised the audience to educate themselves about science and technology so they would be more informed as voters: “Education improves science literacy.”

Whether or not people pursue science or math careers, “in order to truly participate, they must be science literate,” she said. Jemison also was right to advise the listeners to use science and technology wisely.

Science and technology “mold our world.” But technology is merely humanity’s newest tool. “The technology we choose depends on our society.”

People can either use science to create more nuclear weapons or new nuclear-driven discoveries in medicine, she said. Scientific breakthroughs are occurring ever more rapidly. Humanity has to maintain the wisdom, ethics and morality to set the right course for the planet’s future.

Jemison encouraged young people to educate themselves to achieve what people before them had strived to accomplish.

“The future never happens; it is created,” she said. “Each generation must discover its mission and fulfill it or betray it.”

Enormous, impossible-to-ignore events turn heads. But Jemison advised women and girls not to overlook the little things.

During a question-and-answer session, she revealed her past fear of heights. She had to learn to overcome that before she could parachute out of an airplane, traverse an open-air catwalk many stories above the ground to get into the space shuttle and float hundreds of miles above the Earth.

“Pay attention and learn from all adventures in life,” Jemison urged. “Each holds invaluable insight.”

By releasing fear, people soar and create opportunities for themselves and others. In these uncivil times, it was especially good advice.

Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star’s Editorial Board. To reach him, call 816-234-4723 or send e-mail to Ldiuguid@kcstar.com.

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