Students at Texas State Technical College got a rare visit on Friday from a man who came to inspire.
In fact, his own story proves that any of us can do anything we set our mind to.
"This is Mars,” said Dr. Adam Steltzner, who came to Waco to help inspire people like student Hefzi-Ba Ramirez.
"I am actually planning to use my avionics degree, my associate’s degree to go into the Air Force," said Ramirez.
Steltzner’s message: no matter where you set your goals, you can always go higher.
Case in point, his own story.
"I was playing rock n’ roll in the bay area, hoping to become a rock star,” Steltzner said.
That’s right. Steltzner went from rock star to rocket scientist because curiosity got him to wonder about a change he noticed in the position of the stars.
It eventually led him to a career at NASA, where he led the team that landed the Curiosity rover on Mars, using an innovative “sky crane.”
Of all the students at Texas State Technical College, instructors here believe they have more than a few rocket scientists among them.
In fact, the school honored several of its top students ahead of Steltzner’s talk.
But it's the scientist’s fascinating journey from rock star to rocket scientist that got the most attention, a journey fueled by simple curiosity.
"The appreciation of how powerful our native human curiosity is and how, if we stay curious, our minds stay agile and innovative,” said Steltzner.
Leading to things which inspire these students to chase their dreams, no matter how far away they seem.
”I wish, I wish I could be an astronaut because that was actually my dream when I was in elementary school,” said Ramirez.
And the message here today: There’s no limit to what we might do… with a little work, innovation and curiosity.
Steltzner’s next project, “Mars 2020,” aims to collect samples for a return to earth to study.
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