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| EDUCATING LEADERS OF FAITH & CHARACTER |
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UST History Graduates have The Right Stuff to Land NASA Internship
 Leslie Richards loves her job. She gets giddy with excitement when she describes the rush of flashing her NASA badge and driving past Mission Control every morning, just so she can get her hands on a piece of history.
Richards, a University of St. Thomas history graduate student, and James Hamm, a 2008 UST history graduate, landed the opportunity of a lifetime when they were both selected as the only two interns for the nationally competitive NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Oral History Project summer 2008 intern program.
Established in 1996, the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project records detailed, first-person accounts from the individuals who first provided the country and the world with an avenue to space and the moon. Historians conduct in-depth interviews with managers, engineers, technicians, doctors, astronauts, and other employees of NASA and aerospace contractors who served in key roles during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle programs. More than 500 people have participated in the NASA Oral History projects since the program was introduced in the summer of 1997.
As interns, Hamm and Richards will be working in the Johnson Space Center archives between June and August to conduct background research and write biographical profiles of NASA employees, administrators and astronauts to prepare Johnson Space Center historians for future oral history interviews.
For Richards and Hamm, this internship is their first opportunity to work in a historical archive. Richards, who completed her undergraduate history degree at UST in 2005, only had previous work experience in retail. Hamm, a non-traditional student and father of two, was a lab technician for ink companies before he graduated with history degree in May. Richards and Hamm both plan to earn a Master in Liberal Arts in history from UST. Richards hopes to complete work on her thesis this summer, and Hamm begins classes in the fall.
“Growing up in Houston in the shadow of NASA, I find the information we are researching really fascinating,” Richards said. “As a kid, my favorite movie was The Right Stuff because it just captured my imagination. Now in the archives, I get to handle the actual original memos written by men whose names I’ve heard my whole life. Every place you go on the Johnson Space Center campus really is a piece of history, and we get to research that history every day.”
Hamm said he finds the work challenging, but rewarding to be able to contribute the historical record. Knowing little about NASA history prior to the internship, Hamm said he is learning on the job, especially the numerous industry acronyms.
“We have practically had to learn a whole new language,” Hamm joked. “I’ve really gained a greater appreciation for history and its relevance and tangibility. When you are working with information that is relatively recent, and about people you can speak to, it’s neat to be able to help catalogue those experiences. As we do the background research, we can also find areas which have little information recorded, and generate additional interview questions for the historian to make sure we get that on record.”
Dr. Lisa Mundey, a UST assistant professor of history, was an intern in the program in 2002 and 2003, and alerted UST students when the positions became available. Mundey said her experience at NASA in part helped her to later find a job at the U.S. Army Center of Military History.
“NASA runs one of the best history programs in the Federal government, and the JSC Oral History project is one of the keys to that success,” Mundey said. “It is a great credit to James and Leslie, to the History Department and to UST, that our students were selected for both internships. This is a great opportunity for our students to put into use the research, writing and synthesis skills that they learned here at UST. Our students are getting experience working as real historians, and I am sure this will open doors for them in the future.”
Interns in the Oral History Project may apply for subsequent internships and permanent positions at NASA, but Richards said regardless of what the future holds, “even when I’m 82, I can always say I worked for NASA.” |
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