Jose Hernandez — the first Hispanic American astronaut in space — spoke to students at Nedderman Hall Thursday night about his life from farm worker to space traveler. In his blue NASA jumpsuit, he narrated his journey from the bottom to the beyond and gave students some perspective on what they can accomplish.
Hernandez was raised in a migrant family in California. As a child, he grew up picking fruits and vegetables with his family throughout the state. His schooling was, in a way, nomadic because his family would move to different parts of California three times a year. Eventually, his family did settle down and that’s when his education took traction.
He remembers the moment he decided to become an astronaut while watching the Apollo 17 mission — the last mission to the moon — on his black & white television in 1972. That day, Hernandez told his father his dream and his father, in turn, gave him a plan on how to achieve it — although it wasn’t easy to start from the very bottom of working society.
“I didn’t have any access myself, it’s just a matter of education being the key,” said Hernandez.
It took him four decades, pilot and scuba diving lessons as well as a college education all the way up to a PhD to realize his goal — but that was after being rejected 11 times in the application process. In 2007, Hernandez finally piloted his first mission to the international space station. Today, he runs an engineering consulting company and travels across the country to tell his story.
Hernandez’ speech inspired students like Honors freshman Lorenzo Novoa, who studies aerospace engineering.
“He is the epitome perseverance and determination,” said Novoa. “Hearing his thought process and how he strategized every move in his career allowed me to better understand that anything truly is possibly with enough planning, hard work, and perseverance.”
Novoa noted the arduous time and effort it took for Hernandez to achieve his goal.
“As ironic as it is, I’ve always thought about being an astronaut and so I might apply but understand how selective the process is,” said Novoa.
Honors student Silvia Chapa, computer engineering freshman who also attended the lecture, said that while she doesn’t plan on being an astronaut, it still affirmed her belief that it takes a lot to do something extraordinary. Her dream is to one day work with computer chips and the brain and while that’s far from the astronaut career, Hernandez’ speech still resonated with her.
“I knew that this going to be a whole lot of work,” said Chapa with a laugh. “He just confirmed that life is a whole lot of work — but worth it.”