Q&A Spotlight with Gamma Psi Senior Leah Cheshier on her NASA Internship

What is your Major?

-          I’m a senior Media Communication major.

What is your field of interest after graduation and do you have plans yet?

-          I want to pursue a career in new media and eventually work in broadcasting. I look to return to Johnson someday to work in the Public Affairs Office, assisting with social media as well as launch and news broadcasts. However, I am also a singer and actress, so I hope to incorporate my love for performance into my lifestyle, perhaps playing small shows on weekends. For me, broadcasting is a perfect combination of acting and media.

When did your internship start/will end?

-          I moved to Houston and began my internship in late August, 2015. I was working on site through mid-December, and was invited to stay through the spring, but I knew I needed to come back to graduate this semester rather than wait any longer. Thankfully, it has worked out for me to continue my internship part time and remotely while I finish school.

How competitive was it to get the internship? What were the requirements?

-          Funny enough, I didn’t apply for this internship. I originally applied for one in Maryland in NASA Goddard’s news room. I went through their interview process which consisted of a phone interview and sending some information prior, and I was submitted as the candidate for the job. The only thing standing in the way was that Goddard had not yet secured funding for my position. I decided that even if the funding was unavailable, I would work voluntarily for the experience. Goddard told me to accept any other offers I got just in case they never found funding, but I hadn’t applied anywhere else. I waited for Goddard’s official offer for a month, and one day, got a call from Houston, Texas. It was NASA Johnson, who offered me a fall internship on the spot. They had found my information in the system even though I didn’t apply for the position (I didn’t know about it).

What led you to seek out a NASA internship?

-          I was accepted to a couple of other NASA events during my junior year of college, called NASA Socials. This is when members of the social media community are selected to cover a launch or other event on their personal profiles in hopes of garnering more support for the agency. The first one I attended, the rocket exploded 6 seconds off the Launchpad and we had to evacuate. It was terrifying. I ended up doing an interview with a news station in Virginia and outlets like MSNBC and CNN used my footage of the event, and that’s when I realized I could combine my passion for space with my desire to work in new media. I then joined the NASA Georgia Space Grant team as their “Communications Specialist.”

What is the focus of your internship activities?

-          I was originally brought to JSC to write a communications plan that would connect three interns located at different NASA centers across the country. These interns were sponsored by the Science Mission Directorate and Sally Ride Science, so they learned a lot about both of those programs and Dr. Sally Ride.

-          I created many communication process models and maps, showing direction that should occur during the transfer of various information throughout the center.

-          Once at Johnson, I actually focused most of my time developing a success story collection process. I worked alongside NASA Headquarters as they developed one that would be agency-wide, and I specifically created one for NASA Johnson. I wrote about 5 stories using the process and method, and we look to publish the online collection method by the end of this spring.

-          I wrote stories based on various events around the center.

-          I assisted with social media posts and ended up hanging out with a few astronauts as they worked on their own Q and A’s, interviews, or other profiles.

Have any of your Gamma Psi experiences helped you during the internship?

-          Aside from having more confidence and a great support system, one specific thing I didn’t realize had such an impact on me was my level of comfort in meetings. While I was nervous initially, I had been going to Gamma Psi meetings for two years at that point and knew how to present my ideas and comments in a meeting. I always wanted to contribute and since I knew how that process worked and how to communicate to a diverse group of people, it made it so much easier to have my message heard.

What YHC educational experiences helped during the internship?

-          My writing is immeasurably better because of the research and instruction I’ve received at YH. I’m really grateful for that, considering 90% of my job involves written communication.

-          I also learned how to cater my messages to different audiences. An audience outside of JSC might not understand acronyms and terminology that is in the daily vernacular of an employee. A social media post targets people a little closer to my age, while a full article usually appeals more to people older than me.

What is your most memorable intern experience and why?

-          Oh man, I have so many. There was one afternoon where I went to Chelsea Wine Bar (my favorite hangout) with my friends and it ended up being Commander Scott Kelly’s celebration for his halfway point in the year-long mission on the International Space Station (ISS). He was buying everyone’s first round of drinks (from space, mind you), and before you know it, they’re downlinking him. He was literally Skyping us from 250 miles above us. We watched him address the room and then went outside, but when we came back in, the webcam was still on and no one was talking to him. So we just walked up there and started talking to him. That was CRAZY.

-          One of my first days in the newsroom, Astronaut Terry Virts was scheduled to do a webcam interview with CNN to discuss the opening of astronaut applications. Terry had been on the ISS just a few months after I started following the program closely and I really enjoyed watching him document his mission on Instagram and Twitter. I got to sit in on his interview and we struck up conversation about how I was actually pretty honored to meet him since I had followed his expedition so closely. He was really intrigued in where I was from, what I was doing, and how I got involved, which made me feel so cool. When I told him about being at the press site for the explosion of Antares in October 2014, he said (without skipping a beat), “my underwear were on that. I had to conserve.” I absolutely lost it.

-          There are so many little things I loved, like running on the trails onsite and seeing dozens of deer, the Astronaut Memorial Grove being lit up during Christmas, hanging out in historic Mission Control, joining the Space Station Live broadcast from the floor of ISS Mission Control, walking around the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF- home of astronaut training) and looking at the tourists behind the glass above me (I don’t know how many vacation photos I’m in because they probably thought I was important or something), the video we made sharing how astronauts cook Thanksgiving food. Holy cow, how could I forget riding in the rover? This is a good story- bear with me…

-          I had ridden in the Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV, also called “Chariot”) once before with the interns when we scheduled to hang out with the guys who work on those rovers. It was so much fun having that thing dip into craters and scale steep hills, but the best ride I took in it was unintentional. I was learning how to be a media escort and took Fox and Friends around site while they shot a segment, and we went out to the rock yard for them to film the rovers. When they were done, the talent got in his car and drove to the airport, so the camera guys and I were walking back to get their equipment in SVMF and the SEV pulls up right beside me. The guy driving yells out, “do y’all want a ride?” And we climbed in- and I sat shotgun- while astronaut Mike Gernhardt drove us back. Only at NASA, folks. If I had to call that anything, it’s absolutely a NASA hitchhiking experience.

What is your favorite space food?

-          Sensory evaluation was so much fun, but I tried some absolutely disgusting foods. For example, BBQ Nut Bar (like a BBQ Rice Krispy treat) and Jalapeño Nut Bar (I can’t even describe that one) were so bad. So, so bad. Even the first three batches of guacamole were terrible. One day I had “steak fajita,” and they really nailed that one. It was great, and so was Banana Nut Bar. But my favorite experience was actually just for fun one day rather than to provide feedback. We filmed the Thanksgiving food video and afterward, the guys in the food lab told us to pick something to eat. I grabbed a bottle/bag of “Orange Drink…” aka, Tang. I rehydrated it myself just like astronauts do on the ISS and it was pretty darn good.

Do you have a favorite memory with the other interns?

-          So many. Too many to count. We played so many games of pool and trivia I can’t count. We went to New Orleans one weekend, and I had never been, so that was a blast! We also went camping in West Texas and it was cold and rained the entire weekend. So miserable, but we did get a hike in there during a couple hours of sun, and we still had such a good time being with each other. We watched Apollo 13 on Friday the 13^th – also the 20^th anniversary of its release- in Apollo Mission Control, where the mission was commanded. That was insane. I was literally sitting at the exact same console where those astronauts were saved. I went in there several times, and being in that room was surreal. Knowing that’s where “One small step for man,” was heard the first time and digging through the drawers that were still full of manuals is indescribable.

-          Then there’s the time we rented a beach house on an island and stayed the entire weekend during Hurricane Patricia. What a weekend.

Where were the other interns from (schools)?

-          They are from all across the nation- and even Puerto Rico. My two closest friends attended the University of Pittsburg and, believe it or not, GA Tech. Another is from Northern Kentucky University, and another attends Cal Poly. I expected to be one of the older interns since I’m a senior, but I was actually one of the youngest. Several were either pursuing their master’s degree or had been in the military and were now attending school.

Anything you would add to sum up the experience and how it impacts your future?

-          I can’t really sum it up in very few words (as you can probably tell), but I know it is the happiest I have been in my whole life. I was in a place I loved with people I loved doing a job I was passionate about.

-          As for my future, my confidence in a professional environment is incomparable to how I felt on my first day in the office. I also loved moving to a city I had never been to and not knowing anyone, and I really hope to move back to Houston before too long.

-          My relationship with Jesus now is closer than it has been in years. A lot of people wouldn’t expect working in a scientific community would encourage religion, but a lot of JSC employees are actually Christians. Astronaut Story Musgrave’s quote pretty much captures everything important about my experience (well look at that, I guess I can actually sum it up): “For me, face to face with the cosmos is face to face with God.”