Albritton Student Spending Summer at Local Space Camp

It takes a devoted student to voluntarily spend two more weeks at school over the summer holiday, but Ryan O. is just that enthusiastic about his education. Ryan, who recently completed his eighth-grade year at Albritton Middle School, is spending the next two weeks at the NASA Precollege Summer Institute at Fayetteville State University. According to the program’s website, this two-week residential summer camp focuses “on cutting-edge geospatial science & technologies for examining climate change.”

Ryan, an honor student who was awarded numerous commendations at Albritton’s Eighth Grade Transition Ceremony, had only one day to complete the application process for this selective summer program. Even so, he took the application process very seriously. “I shared my ideas about climate change and land use in the written responses, and I did some research to provide more in-depth responses.” A stellar trumpet player who earned spots at the All County & All District middle school bands for the past two years, Ryan had no trouble getting the required teacher recommendations for the application. It is little wonder that he was voted both “Best All-Around Student” and “Most Likely to Succeed” by his eighth-grade peers.

Ryan plans to pursue a career in space. He explains, “I’m interested in satellites or tracking stuff in space or looking at stars. I’m thinking maybe the civilian side of Space Force or NASA.” A member of the National Junior Honor Society and recipient of the 2024 President’s Education Award, Ryan is looking forward to spending two weeks with nineteen other high school students and having the opportunity to learn about actual careers in STEM. “I want to go there to talk to professionals from NASA and learn how they do their jobs and use new technology,” he explained. “Plus, it will be fun to have the college experience. It will be like summer camp with no parents, and that’s always fun. For two weeks, I’ll be able to eat-sleep-breathe college!”

The Bulldog family would like to wish Ryan the best of luck at the NASA Precollege Summer Institute at Fayetteville State University. The program includes partnerships with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA / North Carolina Space Grant, North Carolina State University, State Climate Office of North Carolina, NC State Center for Geospatial Analytics, Penn State University, Huck Institutes, Emerging Technology Institute (ETI), SpatialGIS, DowntownDC BID, and various schools/departments at Fayetteville State University. For more information about the program, visit https://www.uncfsu.edu/geospatial/nasapsi.