Former NASA astronaut and motivational speaker, Dr. Jose Hernandez, visited Taylor Indepedent School District’s event center April 17, to speak to area students about their future. Sponsored by Temple College, the free ticketed event was open to community members as well as select grade levels and college students.
“What I try to do is empower the kids to believe that anything is achievable,” Hernandez said during a brief interview prior to the program. “I use my story to show it’s really not where you start, but where you end up.”
As a young child, Hernandez worked alongside his family picking fruits and vegetables and moving to a new location every three months. He recalled watching the last Apollo Mission, Apollo 17, on the family’s black and white TV with a rabbit ear antennae. He told of listening to news anchor Walter Cronkite narrate the event as astronaut Eugene Cernan took the last steps on the moon.
“That’s when I told myself, that’s what I want to do. I want to be an astronaut,” Hernandez told the audience. “I shared my dream with my dad that same evening.”
Hernandez said his father immediately supported his dream by sharing a five-ingredient recipe for success, a plan that Hernandez shared with the audience, along with a sixth ingredient that he later added, perseverance.
“I’m going to do for you what my father did for me, and that is to give you a license to dream,” Hernandez told the audience. “But I’m also going to give you a recipe he gave me to convert that dream into reality.”
Hernandez applied to the NASA space program numerous times without being accepted. Rather than get discouraged, he found ways to improve himself to stand out among other applicants. He went through the application process 12 times before his dream finally came true. In 2008, Hernandez flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station on a 14-day mission.
In his presentation entitled Creating a Culture of STEM, Hernandez emphasized the importance of science, technology, engineering and math. He started the Reaching for the Stars Foundation to expose children to STEM-related activities. A film about Jose Hernandez’s life and journey into space is scheduled to begin production soon.
