Let's Go to Space: BLUE-SKY Learning

Today Kevin and I meet with Amy Trujillo, a professional educator and author with 20 years experience working with students from elementary school through adults. Currently she is the Instructional Coach at Orlando Science Schools where she oversees STEM, as well as oversees the gifted plans for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Ms. Trujillo is also n innovator and advocate for the needs of diverse learners.  She believes in integrating science, technology, engineering, and math into all lessons so students grasp the concepts as well as gain the skills they need for the future workforce.

Over the course of her career, Amy has received numerous awards and earned several certifications. Among these are the Global Math Ambassador, National Geographic Certified Educator, LEGO Education Master Educator, Nearpod Certified Educator, Kahoot Gold Coach, and a Google Certified Educator. Currently Amy is the president of the Florida Association for the Gifted, the past president of the Florida Association of Science Teachers, and is the new NSTA Area Five Director.

As always, stay tuned after the interview for our takeaways. 

FLAG Website: https://www.floridagifted.org/

"Let’s Go to Space: BLUESKY Learning" is part of a larger educational initiative called the Aerospace and Innovation Academy, which seeks to provide unique and distinctive stem opportunities for passionate middle and high schoolers.  While we often highlight careers in aerospace, today’s podcast is the third in a series where we have been hearing from  parents of students who have incredible resume builders to hear how they believe the program has impacted their child.

Today for episode 57 we meet with Mr. Bill Mayville and Mr. Paul Kiesling.

Paul Kiesling is the father of two active Wolf Pack Students, Paul Jr who is currently a 9th grader at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and Dylan Kiesling, a 6th grader at the Weiss ​School in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Paul is a Global Co-Head of Implementation and Operational Due Diligence at a International Asset Management Company and has a career that has taken him all over the world. Paul feels that the Wolfpack provides innovative global opportunities for its students and fosters a framework for success that the students can apply in all facets of life.

Bill Mayville is a successful entrepreneur, civic leader and 10 year military veteran rising to rank of Captain and earning awards and recognition. Today, Bill is president of Workaway International. This company recruits and provides staff for residential country clubs, ensuring that the clubs have qualified, trained, drug-free domestic and international workers to support their operations.  He successfully led and sold numerous companies prior his CEO position at Workaway international.  He is a graduate of Furman University and earned an MBA from Florida International University.

Let’s Go to Space BLUESKY Learning is part of a larger educational initiative called the Aerospace and Innovation Academy, which seeks to provide unique and distinctive stem opportunities for passionate middle and high schoolers.

While we often highlight careers in aerospace, today’s podcast is the third in a series where we have been hearing from  parents of students who have incredible resume builders to hear how they believe the program has impacted their child. This is our second episode in the series. 

Dr. Ruhi Ahmed currently serves as Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Government Affairs at two companies: FLAG Therapeutics Inc.and at Asceneuron She has nearly 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology. Dr. Ahmed earned her B.S. in Biology and M.A. in Biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin, and her M.S. in Regulatory Sciences and Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Southern California.. Today, she is the proud mom of seventh grader Argyrios Vaitsos who spoke recently at the Hawaiian International Conference of Education

Gary Vescio  is Managing Director of SOUND Wealth Management Group which is a leading financial management and advisory group affiliated with Raymond James.  He is also a former executive of a Fortune 200 technology firm and holds an MBA from the University of Miami. He and his wife Jackie are the parents of 3 boys - the oldest, Michael, who is currently enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and was an inaugural member of our Cube-Sat program; and twins Elliott and Tyler who are members of the team today.

SHOW NOTE: Mr. Vescio appears about halfway through due to a log-in issue. 

Today: we bring you Episode 55: Parent Perspectives:  Supporting Student Success in the AIA with Eran Levy and Stephanie Welch. Mr. Eran Levy has a bachelors in business and computer science. He is an expert in sales and marketing strategy and is the lead for customer success at Cisco along with being a dad of two, including son Daniel who recently spoke at the Hawaiian International Conference of Education.  Mrs. Stephanie Welch is a mother of 3 with a bachelor's in both psychology and dietetics. She is currently focused on pursuing her passion for dietetics, but in her spare time, she accompanies Owen, a senior on his international trips to Beijing, Dubai more.

As always, please stay tuned after the episode for our takeaways, and check us on out FB @Go2space

We are fortunate to have interviewed several amazing educators during our time producing this podcast. Today, we add another rock star to that list: Frederick Hermann has been teaching at the MakuaLani Christian Academy on the big island of Hawaii for twelve years. While his passion is aerospace, Frederick holds a BA in English with a minor in mathematics and a Masters in Special Education. Before becoming a high school teacher, Frederick taught GED in prison in NC; tutored adults in reading, math, and police tests; and was lead teacher for a hispanic after-school program. Now, with his leadership, his students have achieved amazing feats including winning the International Grand Prize in 2021 for the National Space Society’s space settlement contest. Additionally, they received top honors in NASA’s HUNCH contest for their work on a food bite dispenser.

This year, Frederick was recognized for his work in space education by the national space club as the Space Educator of the Year, and he and his students are currently working on a ground station that will help our two teams collaborate by receiving telemetry from a Cube Sat.

We were excited to meet him an his students face to face at the Hawaiian International Conference on Education this past January, and we look forward to more work with him. As always, stay tuned after for our takeaways.

Today, we meet with seventh and eighth grade members of the Aerospace and Innovation Academy, our parent company, to discuss one aspect of the unique opportunities our students are eligible to undertake to help separate them from their peers. Argyrios Deanie Vaitsos, Michael Mikati, and Finley Strauss are middle schoolers who have written several technical papers and have even presented at international conferences including the IAC in Dubai, and, most recently the Hawaiian International Conference on Education in Jan. Today, they will share about why they take on adult style responsibilities and how doing so has helped to prepare them for their next steps in life.

If you or a student you know is interested in doing this kind of experiential STEM work, please check out our website at www.aerospacehigh. Org or our social media sites on FB and IG.

As always stay tuned after the show for our takeaways.

Today we meet with Dr. Pradeep Shinde. Dr. Shinde  received his PhD from Florida International University in Mechanical Engineering and is the CEO of SpaceLoon™, a company being built at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's MicaPlex. He has expertise in High-Altitude Balloons and CubeSat instrumentation and has received four awards from NASA-FSGC (NASA-Florida Space Grant Consortium) over the course seven years which helped him with his entrepreneurial goals.

SpaceLoon™ (Space Balloon Technologies) Corp. was founded in 2018, Since then, the technology has been matured by field demonstrations and commercialization risk reductions. SpaceLoon has attracted some investments from friends and family, has verbal confirmation from a few angel investors, an active NSF I-Corps grant and an active NSF SBIR Phase-I submission. At present SpaceLoon is engaged with the student ballooning program with the support from NASA-FSGC

Dr. Shinde has mentored several students in the acquiring of aerospace skills and he pioneered the culture of electric vehicle development by leading competitions for his teams. We look forward to partnering with him in the future and as always, stay tuned for our takeaway.

Today we meet with Matt Voss, the Chief Operations Officer for NearSpace Launch, Inc.

Matt has an extensive professional entrepreneurial background including an MBA in Management and Marketing with 15+ years’ experience in fast-paced dynamic environments.

He has managed and directed million-dollar budgets and held a key role in their aerospace startup in 2006.

He has a passion for developing an effective and influential business culture, has excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and is able to work effectively cross-functional teams. Kevin and I are huge fans of Matt—NSL in general has always willing to work with our students to help them realize their space aspirations

Their website: https://www.nearspacelaunch.com/

Jim Plaxco is a digital artist, creative coder, public speaker, and web consultant. Prior to entering the field of digital art, Jim was an information technology professional and software engineer working for Fortune 100 companies, included AT&T and IBM. In March 2019 Jim became the National Space Society’s Director of Information Systems and in October 2019 became the NSS Data Protection Officer.

Doc Chaves is director of corporate communications for LI-COR Biosciences, a world leader in technology for measuring global climate change and cutting-edge instrumentation for molecular biology research. His main job is translating English to English…helping engineers and scientists share knowledge with a broader audience. He is a volunteer leader for the Big Red Satellite Team, Nebraska’s first team to be selected by NASA to design, build and fly a CubeSat and who were featured in an earlier podcast—you can see link in show notes.

Website for LiCor: https://www.licor.com/

Link to episode 17 with John McClure here: 

Link to episode 19 about BigRedSat here:

Website for Aerospace and Innovation Academy:  www. aerospacehigh.org