KY space camp aims to introduce more girls to aerospace science

MOREHEAD, Ky. (WKYT) – The STEM field is a predominantly male-dominated area, but for one space camp program, they’re working to change that.

Over the last week, several high school girls from across the Commonwealth and beyond have been getting a glimpse of what its like to work in the aerospace industry.

“I was just really excited, like wow, I can learn all of this stuff in two weeks and have all of this fun and meet other girls who are interested in this stuff like me,” said high schooler Ruby Korman.

This is all thanks to the SpaceTrek Program, which is a space systems program for young women that has been happening in Morehead.

“Girls in SpaceTrek get exposure to electricity and electronics and they develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities to understand space craft subsystems,” said the program’s director, Jennifer Carter.

Through the two-week-long program, the girls get to do a bunch of hands-on activities, like launching their own satellite-like device called a cricket sat.

The cricket sat is sent into the sky collecting data on the temperature.

“The primary takeaway for girls participating in SpaceTrek is that they see a tangible college and career pathway in aerospace,” Carter added.

That’s exactly what happened for the program’s co-instructor Chloe Hart.

“Throughout my time at SpaceTrek, I just fell in love with space systems engineering and ground station communications specifically, and that’s when I decided to change my career path and go into space systems engineering,” Hart said.

And beyond the group bonding activities and guest speakers, like WKYT’s own meteorologist Alexa Minton, girls get to see that there is space for them in this industry.

“My team created SpaceTrek to be what we needed when we were young teenagers. We needed this academic challenge to show ourselves what we are truly capable of doing,” Carter said.

The program will wrap up Saturday, June 22.

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