Gaston College student participates in NASA virtual experience

Gaston College student Trenton Laws was selected out of hundreds of community college students across the country to attend the NCAS virtual experience from Feb. 2-8, 2022, and won the mission challenge with his team.

This was a dream come true for Trenton, who says he hopes to work for NASA one day. Laws earned his spot in the program after successfully completing a five-week online NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) course.

The NCAS virtual experience teaches students about NASA’s missions and careers in science and engineering. The selected students work in teams to design a mission to explore the moon or Mars. In designing the mission, students learn how to manage a budget, develop communication, and plan outreach strategies. Laws said his team wanted to build a mission that NASA has not done before so they could truly put their knowledge to the test. He and his team won the challenge by creating a mission where people were sent to Mars.

“It was honestly kind of a shock in a way. I couldn’t really believe it when I was accepted into the program, and then winning everything was also exciting,” said Laws. “I yelled and screamed at my computer when I saw my team won.”

Laws studies engineering at Gaston College and is part of the SPARC Scholars program, a scholarship program for STEM students. He says his love for NASA and space comes from history and reading where people traveled and how they discovered the places we know today. “Space is the next step of that,” said Laws. “I want to be a part of going to places people have never been before.”

The Minority University Research and Education Program, or MUREP, funds NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars. MUREP commits to engaging underrepresented and underserved students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with authentic learning experiences to sustain a diverse workforce.