Originally published by the NASA New York Space Grant Consortium. Read it on their website here.
The team at NYSG had an opportunity to interview one of our recent Opportunity Grant recipients, Caroline Juang. Caroline is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. Caroline is passionate about Earth science and space technology, while advancing the careers of underrepresented groups in the space industry.
We were able to catch up with Caroline to learn more about her passions. This interview gave us better insight into the development and significance of SpaceInterns. We were given the opportunity to learn more about SpaceInterns continued success in expanding opportunity for underrepresented communities and create greater accessibility for all.
Hello Caroline! It is a pleasure to meet you! We are glad to have you here today! Please, tell us a little about yourself, so we can get to know you better.
I’m a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. In my day-to-day life, I am learning what climate change means for wildfires and society and using space-based data to uncover new results. I love collaborating with my advisor and colleagues on questions about the future of wildfires, and hope I can pursue a career at the intersection of Earth science and space technology. On the side, I am passionate about advancing the careers of underrepresented groups in the space industry. I am a member of the Executive Team for the Brooke Owens Fellowship, a non-profit internship and mentorship program for women and other gender-minorities interested in aerospace careers, and co-founded SpaceInterns.org with the Space Interns team. It feels great to be studying for my Ph.D. in New York City—I grew up on Long Island where I attended elementary school to high school, so I’m happy to be back in New York to develop my research, while also supporting the next generation of Earth and space leaders here.
Can you describe your team members and their respective contributions?
SpaceInterns was co-founded by Chris Fu and I. Chris is a medical student at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, who is also a software developer who used his technical expertise to build out the SpaceInterns website based on my initial dream, and improves its user experience and design. My other team members are Therese Jones (Senior Director of Policy at the Satellite Industry Association), who maintains an awesome “Guide to the Space Life” and helps keep our opportunities up to date, and Miché Aaron (Ph.D. Candidate at Johns Hopkins University) who gives suggestions on how to reach more people. Therese, with the help of Miché, had originally kept a running list of opportunities for People of Color in STEM in addition to many other activities they run to support underrepresented groups in STEM. When I came up with the idea for this database to fill a niche, I enthusiastically included their work into the database and together, we expanded upon it. Hopefully in the future we will grow in volunteers.
What was the inspiration for SpaceInterns? Why was the creation of SpaceInterns necessary?
There are many job boards where companies can post internships because they have the HR (human resource) team capacity, but this does not exist for recurring opportunities like nonprofit internship programs or scholarships and fellowships. Before SpaceInterns.org, opportunities in the space industry were mostly passed through word of mouth or through links to Google Sheets. I envisioned creating a searchable database and resources page where you don’t need a connection to the space industry to hear about new opportunities and find your place in the aerospace industry; a place for the recurring opportunities that are funded but don’t often end up on job boards.
This inspiration came from my own experience as a Brooke Owens Fellow in the first class of “Brookies” in 2017. The experience was life and career-changing, leading to my current position as the Executive Team running the Fellowship. However, I only found the position through a Facebook Group I joined only a few months prior. I want more people to find out about the Brooke Owens Fellowship and other uplifting programs like it through an accessible platform, and not through pure chance!
Can you describe the development process for SpaceInterns? Were there any challenges during the development process?
When we initially included Therese and Miché’s database, I worked many hours to reformat their database into something searchable for the future opportunities database, and then many more hours to populate it with new opportunities. Chris has been tackling all the technical challenges of building out the website, the database user experience, and the administrative experience for me when I add new opportunities. The entire project is a challenge for the both of us, to lead and maintain a great experience for students in New York State and beyond. We ask ourselves how we can make this experience sustainable into the future.
How does SpaceInterns curate such vast information on STEM internships, fellowships, scholarships, and grants?
Our efforts are all volunteer-based, so to answer “how”—the answer is it takes time and industry knowledge! I have spent many volunteer hours to curate new opportunities that I found through Twitter, through other databases, ones I find through my role as Executive Team for the Brooke Owens Fellowship, and ones that were sent directly to me from friends in the industry. Therese is also a big help with finding new opportunities since she is heavily involved in diversifying the space industry by co-founding the Zed Factor Fellowship, founded the AIAA Diversity Scholarship, and is a member of the SEDS Board of Advisors.
What are the short-term and long-term implications SpaceInterns will have on the STEM workforce?
When we launched, we reached levels of tens of thousands of pageviews from people all over the world, and still maintain several thousand unique visitors each month. The short-term implication is that many students and young professionals are finding their dream opportunities, reading the guides we curate, and entering the space industry thanks to SpaceInterns.org. Because they find these opportunities today, then in the long-term we will see people from diverse backgrounds across the industry, innovating new technology and creating new cultures across entry-level to senior leadership positions.
How did the Opportunity Grant make this possible?
Thanks to funding from NYSG, we were able to maintain our database and add new opportunities throughout the summer, but in addition we could improve small but necessary technical aspects of our website. Chris worked on a better administrative interface that helps update new deadlines, mark old ones as complete, and add new opportunities. It’s already being used with all the summer internships, fellowships, scholarships, and grants that rolled out new deadlines in September. It was easy to update all of them thanks to NYSG (New York Space Grant).
Do you anticipate applying for the Opportunity Grant to further enhance SpaceInterns?
We would love the chance to apply to the Opportunity Grant again. The website development is really important to how New York State students navigate opportunities, and we would welcome support from NYSG.
Special Dedications
In addition to NYSG, I would like to thank my team for taking on this project with me, to my friends who have been supportive of me and send new opportunities, and my mentor, Larry Helm, who donated to the project and has always been supportive of me since we met when I was a Brookie.