By Christina Burke
Staff Writer
From a young age, many students aspire to follow their wildest dreams such as becoming an astronaut. Throughout the years, some students lose their motivation, but others rise above the odds to conquer their ambitions.
Senior Carolyn Mason has been actively involved in the Coppell Engineering Program for the past four years and has worked hard to make sure she will be able to achieve her scientific goals in her post-high school engineering career.
This summer, Mason will spend her time working on an internship with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). From a young age, Mason has had a passion for engineering, and now all of her wildest dreams are coming true.
“I have always liked making things, designing things and putting stuff together,” Mason said. “Starting with Legos and blocks, I built stuff my hamster could play on. I love being creative and making stuff.”
In just eighth grade, Mason had the interesting opportunity to program Lego robots, manipulating them to do what she desired. During her time in high school, Mason spent her extra curricular hours in the Coppell Engineering Program.
As a freshman, Mason got involved with the Exploring Science, Technology, and Engineering (EXCITE) program and robotics to competitively build robots out of raw materials. As her passion for engineering grew, so did her amount of experience in the field. Mason joined the Marine Advance Technology Education (MATE) Underwater Robotics team and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) robotics as a sophomore, continuing to experiment by building up to 120-pound robots.
Her loyalty to this program led Mason to lead the first robotics team at Coppell High School for the past two years.
“Carolyn is a very, very dedicated student. She is very committed to all of the projects she takes on, and sees that they get done, and get done right,” CHS engineering adviser Mike Yakubovsky said. “She is willing to take the initiative to make things happen. She really enjoys it, and this is something that she really wants to do. I could not even begin to imagine how far that passion is going to take her.”
In the summer between her junior and senior years, Mason was involved with the High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS), and was selected to participate in a free summer camp with NASA. Here Mason would hear of an opportunity that would greatly jumpstart her future.
Mason has recently accepted the opportunity to work alongside members of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland for 10 weeks this summer as an intern. She will assist her mentor in testing projects such as subsystem flight components.
“I really could not believe that I was accepted, especially for this project. Some of them were specifically allocated for freshman, and this one was open to any age group in college, so I was really excited,” Mason said. “I have never worked on anything real.”
Despite Mason’s abundance of training in the field of engineering, this summer project will be a new challenge for her, bringing in a twist of real world application.
“I am not entirely sure [of what I will be doing this summer]. From what I have heard talking to other people, there are about 300 interns at Goddard,” Mason said. “My particular project will be the DISCOVER space satellite, so I will be working with the propulsion and testing for that satellite, which may de-flight at the end of next year depending on how funding goes.”
Although this project is unlike anything she has ever done before, Mason’s engineering instructors believe she will flourish under the given circumstances.
“The biggest difference is in scale; it is going to be bigger,” Yakubovsky said. “We have always done hands on things here, so she will be comfortable in that environment. It is just going to be much bigger and a whole lot cooler. I have no doubt she will be fine.”
Not all students planning to study engineering lucky enough to have this opportunity, especially as an incoming freshman in college. With plans to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder in the fall, Mason is walking into her future with a very unique experience that should ensure her preparation for what is ahead.
“[University of Colorado] is a national leader in providing hands-on active learning experiences that get students out of the classroom and doing real-world engineering,” Director of Communications at Colorado Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science Karen Rowe said. “If Carolyn participates in a NASA internship this summer, she will be ready to hit the ground running in the fall, already having a good idea of her goals and what she needs to do to reach them.”
Although Mason has a steady start towards her future, she is still a little hesitant about leaving behind the great years she has experienced at Coppell High School, but is ready to walk ahead into the future.
“I have really enjoyed high school; everything about it and all of the opportunities we have had here. It feels really awesome to have an opportunity like this to start off her post high school career,” Mason said. “Try and open up as much opportunity for yourself as possible. You never know if you might get it or what you could do.”
