The most prominent question asked in the average Kindergarten class is “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
There is always a pile of responses that follow that include occupations such as firefighters, movie stars, princesses, teachers and doctors. For LSU Volleyball’s standout middle blocker, Angelina Lee, it was always “astronaut.”
“I’ve always wanted to work for NASA,” Lee recalled. “I’ve always had a passion for space exploration and science even before I started playing sports; it’s always been a dream of mine.”
Little did Lee know she would be met with the perfect opportunity to achieve that dream this summer.
Lee had noticed a posting through LSU’s Tiger Life for a micro-internship with the NASA Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center, and she knew she had to apply. It had always been her dream, and now it was becoming a reality.
During the internship, Lee was met with brand new experiences, such as shadowing engineers, learning the business of NASA and even touring other space facilities like Space X and Blue Origin. As an industrial engineering major, Lee was able to see the bridge between the science and business sides of NASA.
“I was more on the business side,” Lee said. “So, I got to talk to a lot of people in the business office. I got to sit in on a lot of meetings and talk to a lot of project managers and lawyers. Just got to see the business side and contract side of space exploration and rocket launches, because we always see the rocket launch but never know how much work goes into it.”
Even with all the massive buildings, rockets and technology around her, Lee recalled that the most interesting aspect of the internship was simply being able to learn from the engineers and hear about their journey with NASA. It gave her confidence and reassurance that this is where she is meant to be, and this is what she is meant to do.
“As corny as it sounds, my biggest takeaway from this experience is that anything is possible,” Lee explained. “Me a year ago, me five years ago, would have never thought that I would have an opportunity, as a student athlete, to even touch the grounds at NASA.”
Lee also had the opportunity to give back to youth during this internship and wanted to make sure they knew that anything really was possible. Lee and her fellow interns were brought to a local high school to share their experiences with not only NASA, but in athletics. She was able to talk with the students about her sports journey and love for space.
Lee even got some one-on-one time with a few high school girls and was able to encourage them to follow their dreams. Considering she did not start playing volleyball until her freshman year of high school, she wanted to let the girls know that it is never too late to start something.
Throughout this entire journey and internship, Lee knew she always had support from her LSU family. Whether it was her teammates, coaches, support staff, or the Tiger Life administrators, she knew they would be there for her.
“Just the volleyball staff in general are huge on not just developing us as players, but as people,” Lee said. “They never hold us back or put us in some square category that we had to be volleyball players. They really appreciate I have a passion outside of volleyball.”
As Lee enters her junior season with the LSU volleyball team, she plans to take these experiences and push herself, always chasing big dreams and shooting for the stars, literally.