My whole life I'd always had this
amazing dream that you know the best
thing you could possibly do was work for
NASA
We were watching you know the moon
landing and I told mom I wanted to go to
the moon that day I told mom I wanted to go to the moon
And you know you would
think that mom will be negative about
the whole thing basically what she told
me was you can be anything that you want
to just put your mind to it and work
hard and you never know
My mother was an aeronautical engineer she was just a
no-nonsense you know I'm gonna I'm gonna
work hard and I'm gonna get the job done
and she did
To me that was just a
tremendous inspiration for me as a young
woman seeing that a technical career and
that a career in in leadership in a
mathematical or a scientific field was
was possible
The best mentors that I
have ever had have been those people who
helped me figure things on my own not
tell me what to do but they took
questions and answers they they extract
what is it that I want to do what I want to go
People that just gave me
confidence and gave me the you know the
idea that I could do it and I should try
because there's nothing wrong with trying
We have the power within us to
really be whoever we want to be and if
we want to be engineers scientists or
astronauts or whatever what have you
You know that we can do that
It is important
to have the diversity not just in not
just in disciplines and in technical
expertise but it walks of life
I have many times found myself to be the
only woman in the room
There's really been a tremendous emphasis over at least
the last 10 or 15 years and really
making sure that we provide
opportunities that there are
opportunities for women to excel and to
work in leadership positions and I'm
seeing more and more and more of that
For those young girls nowadays that are
growing up you know they can see so many
role models and so many examples and so
many places they can said I want to be
like her
People are just inspired by what NASA
 does
and you know people look at you
differently when you know I'm on a plane
and they see my NASA pin and there at
the end of the first thing they say is
ah do you work for NASA
and say yes yes I do
So I think it is important that the
girls have the role models because they
cannot be who they cannot see
There are people who understand what you've been
through and you've got to just keep
pursuing and be persistent and
there'll always be you've got to have
the first one there so keep keep going
If you love something so much you will
be successful because you put your heart and soul into it
Follow your dreams because they'll
always take you to success
