"We had a mentor from NASA," Ihekwoeme said. "I was project manager and budget officer."
Ihekwoeme participated in missions where she learned about the moon and mars. She worked with classmates and was the project manager and budget adviser. The 10-member team had to design a mission to the moon or Mars.
Ihekwoeme, who is originally from Humboldt County, has lived in Chico for six years. She is studying electrical engineering. She attended high school at Pleasant Valley High School.
Ihekwoeme said last year her friend recommended the program to her and thought it was really interesting.
"We chose the moon and designed a mission. We figured out which rocket we were using and what scientific instruments we were using. We explored dark areas and went into caves. It was fun to work with my team. They were all passionate about NASA," Ihekwoeme said.
Ihekwoeme enjoyed working with her team.
"Overall we were designing a mission to the moon with a rover, and figuring out how much it costs. We did engineering design. We had to make scientific choices; that's how the mission went. We had a lot of Zoom meetings. There was one about studying the surface of the moon and studying rocks. It was cool to meet with my team over Zoom. We opened up the meeting to questions about how to work on a team and learned a lot," Ihekwoeme
The team will be participating in a third mission, which should be coming up soon.
"We are setting stuff up," Ihekwoeme said. "The second mission was a weeklong project. The first mission took a little over a month to complete, where we learned about the moon and Artemis."
Ihekoeme had to apply for the program and then was invited to the mission. NASA provided them with a course.
"It's been really cool to engineer a rover or a plane to help us go to to the moon. I liked being part of a team," she said.
After the third mission Ihekoeme will be concentrating on her classes and her job as a cashier at a pharmacy.
She said having this experience is a really good item to put on her resume. She is working on getting a pharmacy technician license and plans to transfer to UC Davis or Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
The team members came from community colleges everywhere in California.
"It was a bonding experience," Ihekoeme said. "I have a few of the students on LinkedIn. I would love to be part of a team again."
Miles Strelecki, Ihekwoeme's classmate at Butte College, said Ihekoeme was very excited about the project. He met her in fall semester 2021 when they took chemistry class together.
"I know she was really looking forward to it," Strelecki said. "She'd been talking about it for over a year. It seems like she really enjoyed it. It fit with her personality. She's really into math and science and very smart."
Strelecki said said the program gave students a chance to see if they wanted to go into the NASA career field.
"She places a lot of emphasis on school," he said. "She's really focused on work and is very dedicated."
Ihekwoeme's friend Jordan Bennett, attended Pleasant Valley with her. They were teammates on the volleyball team.
"Amara is a very quiet person," Bennett said. "Once you get to know her, she's one of the most special people you could ever meet. She's amazing, a great person, friend and teammate. I think she's grown a lot and has become a more confident person. Working with strangers and being in a leadership role was good for her. I'm beyond proud of her."
Bennett feels lucky to be Ihekwoeme's friend.
"She's so smart," Bennett said. "Being able to know her is amazing. She's going to be an amazing young woman. She puts her heart in to her work and she's accomplishing so many cool things."
Felix Ihekwoeme, Amara Ihekwoeme's father, is also very proud of her.
"I'm so proud of her interest and curiosity in things like NASA," he said. "She's exploring engineering. She's a curious and meticulous person. She's very special."
"She talked to me about the formulation of going to Mars. She was interested in games as a child, and writing and reading books. She likes playing Minecraft too," Felix Ihekwoeme said.
"She's talked about working with computers and engineering," Felix Ihekwoeme said. "We will see how it goes."
The NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars can be reached by email at JSC-NCAS@mail.nasa.gov or by phone at 281-244-7029 or at https://go.nasa.gov/ncas.
©2022 Chico Enterprise-Record, Calif. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
