Lake Wales High student finds inspiration in virtual summer internship with NASA

The mission of NASA involves much more than sending astronauts into space.

Daniel Moya, a rising senior at Lake Wales High School, received personal reinforcement of that fact this summer, when he participated in the NASA Student Enhancement in Earth and Space Science summer internship, sponsored by NASA and the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Space Research.

Moya, 16, was one of about 100 students nationwide selected for the virtual internships, out of nearly 2,000 applicants, the University of Texas said in a news release. The program culminated with an online symposium July 24-26.

“Definitely, it gave me inspiration,” Moya, a Winter Haven resident, said of the internship.

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Moya credited a former teacher, David Lockett, with encouraging him to apply for the program. Moya was hesitant, saying he had grown discouraged after applying without success for 16 paid internships with NASA.

He said Lockett seemed confident about his chances, reminding him that he had established a solid base of knowledge about computer coding from an International Baccalaureate geography class.

“I really thought I wasn't going to make it since I got rejected by all those other positions,” Moya said. “I didn't think I was going to get accepted by this one either. But I was like, ‘You know what, let's just try it. You never know.’ But due to God's will, it worked. I don't know how, but it just did.”

The notice that Moya had been accepted came by email.

“I didn't expect it at all, and I was so happy,” he said.

In the unpaid internship, students worked with scientists and engineers to conduct research using data received from NASA’s observational satellites to study air quality, land forms, mosquito-borne diseases and astronomy, according to a news release.

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Students collaborated remotely with assigned project scientists to conduct hands-on activities and field investigations, the release said. The studies mirrored the work of NASA's Earth science program, which seeks a scientific understanding of Earth's system and its response to natural or human-induced changes to improve prediction of climate, weather and natural hazards, the release said.

Moya, who is dual-enrolled in classes through Polk State College, said the students were divided into groups to study particular topics and then placed into subgroups to pursue experiments. He said he was assigned to a group studying the urban heat island effect, a phenomenon in which densely developed areas experience higher temperatures than more rural areas because heat is absorbed by roads, buildings and other inorganic elements.

In his subgroup, Moya and another student used NASA satellite data to examine the correlation between humidity and temperature. He said they drew upon datasets covering such areas as land surface temperature, humidity, vegetation and groundwater.

During the three-day NASA SEES Virtual Symposium, students presented their research results to NASA scientists and engineers, other participants and the public.

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“And there were some projects that just blew mine out of the water,” Moya said. “Are you familiar with AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning? Some groups, they used machine learning models to calculate how the future of the world is going to go. … So it was very interesting, seeing other projects around the (country).”

The symposium included statements from people who had previously taken part in the internship as high school students, Moya said.

“These are the people that took the SEES internship last year and before, and there are people that, they moved up the ranks through NASA and they became NASA engineers, NASA scientists," he said. "Someone worked for Tesla, someone worked for Apple, and most of these people became successful.”

Michael Sargent, an engineering teacher at Lake Wales High School, drew encouragement from Moya’s inclusion in the NASA internship. He taught Moya in applied engineering in a program that collaborates with Polk State College.

“It’s great because now he's connecting that next level scene with the quote-unquote real world,” Sargent said. “Because obviously, in a high school classroom, there's only so much I can simulate and say.”

Sargent said he is eager to hear more about the internship when fall classes begin Friday.

“I can't wait to see him, look in his eyes, and say, ‘So, how did everything work out that I taught you? Did you see why we graph all these things, and we look at this data and let that drive the decision-making process?’” Sargent said. “So it'd be nice to be able to bring in what I've taught, take his experiences, and then say, ‘OK, now share this with the other people, so it's not just a teacher teaching you something.’”

Moya said his father is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who recently obtained his long-delayed associate of arts degree. He said his mother is Puerto Rican and came to the mainland United States without speaking English well.

At this point, Moya is planning to study computer engineering, though he said that could change. While he found the NASA internship inspiring, it did not create a desire to seek the agency’s rarest and most recognizable job, astronaut.

“I thought about it, and I know the amount of work that it requires,” he said. “But, to be honest, it doesn't seem like my thing. I feel like it would be more beneficial for me to help out, like, creating the rockets and creating the spaceships. I feel like that that's more my field.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lake Wales High student relishes virtual summer internship with NASA