This past Wednesday was the long-awaited Business Symposium and like always, it was amazing. I met some incredibly amazing and also reunited with one of my NASA HAS Teammate. During the first part of the symposium, all the ISM students had to network with professionals from the Dallas Forth Worth Area. I actually got to speak with my former high school principal. It was really great to see him and I thought it was really kind of him to come and talk to us. In addition to talking to my principal, I also spoke with people who are in the IT, real estate, and social management industries. Even though they weren't in my field of study, they all gave me one amazing advice. That advice was NETWORK! You never know who will help you. For example, last summer, I met Mr. Harkins who was a retired aerospace engineer. Yes, he isn't an astrobiologist but since he worked at NASA, he was able to give me many contacts. This is how I met my mentor. It is amazing how magical networking is. After the networking session, I had to go to my mock interviews. This part of the symposium is extremely important because you are really sharpening your interview skills. I figure these skills would be important for college admission and wait for it... job employment. I want to share with you guys a story about one of the people that interviewed me. Here it goes... my interviewer used to be a national competitive swimmer. She was telling me how she was going to participate in the Olympic Trials. Everything was going great. She was about to fulfill her dream of becoming a U.S Olympic Swimmer but that dream did not last. Three weeks before the trials, she was in a car accident. She never made it to the Olympics and it initially crushed her. She told me that realized after her accident that there was much more to life. Just because one dream doesn't get fulfilled, doesn't mean that you have to give up on life. I found her story very inspiring and I became a stronger person listening to her. Apart from my interviews, I also got to meet one of my favorite people, MR. WYSONG!!! He was our guest speaker and it was wonderful to hear him talk about how we should live our lives to our fullest. I really do miss those motivational speeches. After the symposium, I had an interview with Dr. Tom Barclay from NASA Goddard Space Center. He is a really cool person because he is part of the Kepler mission to find habitable planets outside our solar system. I found it especially found his story inspiring. He told me how he never was the top of his class and how he failed many times at life. He talked about how much he treasured those moments because that is when he grew as a person. He told me how I don't have to be the valedictorian to be scientists. All I need was to have the right heart and give my 100% in everything I did because that is where true success lies.
