Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah honors interns

  • Published
  • By Randi Weston
  • Hilltop Times Correspondent
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  Seven lucky students each received approximately $1,000 in scholarship money this year from the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah for their academic achievement and volunteer internship work in the Aerospace Center for Education (ACE) at Hill Aerospace Museum.

According to the foundation's website, "The Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah is a private, non-profit organization founded in 1982. The mission of the foundation is to provide capital support for Hill Aerospace Museum for facility improvement and expansion, and for those projects for which U.S. Air Force funding is not available."

This year's recipients and the college/university they are attending include: Anne Leibold, Southern Utah University; Katherine Glad, Brigham Young University Idaho; Cheyenne Espinoza-McDowell and Karissa Barron, Weber State University; Michelle Dean and Kelsey Love, University of Utah; and Erin Nordhill, Oregon Tech.

The foundation requested $10,000 in grant money from NASA for the scholarship program. Leslie Peterson, Education Specialist at Hill Aerospace Museum, said the scholarship recipients were chosen based upon grade point average, extracurricular activities, recommendations, and interviews, in addition to each student's performance during his or her internship.

The interns were responsible for helping with the 2013 museum's summer Aviation Camps by teaching and demonstrating STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum.

"STEM activities they shared with our students and camps included aviation sciences," Peterson said. "For example, the theory, forces and effects of flight, axis of rotation, gravitational forces, and densities of liquids, solids and gases. Areas of emphasis included Bernoulli's principles, electricity, magnetism, rocketry, robotics and kinetic energy just to name a few. Each intern was assigned a subject matter to prepare, demonstrate and teach K-12 students."

According to a news release sent out by Robb S. Alexander Jr., Executive Director of the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah, "The Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah hopes these experiences will enhance and inspire students to choose science courses and possibly pursue an aerospace-related field as a career."

According to Peterson, the tactic appears to have worked on several of the interns who have expressed interest in film and science, physics and elementary education, engineering, and aviation degrees. But she said she thinks the most important skills students gained on their internships weren't technical.

"The most important things our interns learned: the ability to interact with a variety of age groups, the realization of practical sciences, inter-personal and external communication skills, an ability to motivate and encourage the next generation, management skills, an opportunity to learn about museums and Air Force History," Peterson said.

Originally started eight years ago, the ACE internships run in both the spring (January through May) and summer (Mid-May through August), and they aren't the coffee-fetching, grunt work type of internships, either. Peterson said interns are vital to the museum's education programs.

"Without them we would not be able to reach the large amount of students and families that we see in the summer," Peterson said. "We see more than 45,000 folks in the summer months with about sixty percent visiting our learning center. We provide aviation camps and hands-on activities throughout the summer."

Peterson said the internships are important for students as well, noting the success of a former ACE intern.

"Here is an example of the success of the education program at the Hill Aerospace Museum," Peterson said. "This past spring, Kim Jackson, a former ACE student and volunteer fulfilled a life-long dream of graduating from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She has always dreamed of 'flying jets.' She begins her formal Air Force flight training in January of 2014. Her introduction to aviation and aerospace science started at the Hill Aerospace Museum ACE."

If you know a young person who would be interested in this unique scholarship opportunity, you should be able to find an application in your student's counselor's office or financial aid center.

"Scholarship applications are sent to high school counselors and university financial aid in the spring of each year," Peterson said. "Students must be accepted by a university and be a senior graduating from high school before the summer, or already attending college. The funds are given directly to the respective universities for scholarship funding."