Education Is The Key

Sepulveda Receives Honor From Puerto Rico City

By JULIA COLE
SAIC

Roberto Sepulveda, an SAIC employee on contract to Langley Research Center’s Office of Education, received the “key to the city” during a recent trip to Añasco, Puerto Rico.

Sepulveda was honored for his work with the Students’ Cloud Observations On-Line (S’COOL) project.

“The representative said ‘Thank you’ to NASA for caring about the future of the students in Añasco,” Sepulveda said. “They felt it was an honor for NASA to take the time to visit the city.”

Sepulveda has visited Puerto Rico six times, reaching close to 400 teachers and hundreds of more students.

“It is important for students to know that it is a team concept at NASA,” Sepulveda said. “We need all types of specialized people to accomplish our goals. I also emphasized the need to learn English and how beneficial being bilingual could be to their future.”

After the presentation, Sepulveda was treated to a trolley tour of Añasco, complete with stops to other schools where he gave additional presentations about NASA careers.

“I was overwhelmed by the way they greeted me,” Sepulveda said. “The kids and their hospitality won me over. They have limited resources, yet they took the time and the effort to do that in appreciation for what NASA has done for them.

“It is the open-mindedness of the partnership between S’COOL and Langley’s Office of Education that has enabled this work in Puerto Rico,” Sepulveda said. “We’re trying to think beyond the box to come up with new ways to engage students, and this recent trip to Puerto Rico means we’re successful.”

• For more information, visit http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/SCOOL and http://edu.larc.nasa.gov/dl.html on the Internet.
  

Julia Cole works for SAIC in support of Langley’s Atmospheric Sciences Competency.

Roberto Sepulveda, an SAIC employee on contract to Langley Research Center’s Office of Education, displays the “key to the city” he received during a recent trip to Añasco, Puerto Rico. “They felt it was an honor for NASA to take the time to visit the city,” he said.

Photo by Jeff Caplan