KATIE BEDARD  - A second year recipient, and a resident of St Albans, Vermont. She is a second year biology student at University of Vermont. She is a member of the Honors College, was on the Dean's List, and is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.  She also recently was accepted to participate in a prestigious and highly competitive Premedical Enhancement Program.  Katie is a volunteer at Fletcher Allen and holds a part time job.  She says pursuing biology is compelling because it is the study of life.  She says her educational and career plans very much relate to the interest of NASA,  NASA is highly invested in biology and the research biologists conduct.  Astrobiology is still a field where massive breakthroughs are expected to happen because the origin of life and habitable environments within the solar system are still mysterious.  In viewing employment, she hopes to pursue medicine.  NASA is a company that is built upon the hard work of many people.  Without its employees, the great innovations that happen there would cease to exist.  the health and physical well being of the individuals who are employed by NASA is a top priority.  Katie has a commitment and a passion for people and communities in their entirety, much as NASA has a commitment to its employees as well as the world to share the knowledge of space and its benefits.

 ASHLEY ERNO  - A third year recipient, and a resident of Highgate Center, Vermont.   She is a third year student majoring in social work at Johnson State College.  She has been involved in a few clubs including the Red Cross and the Wednesday Night Game Club.  She is gaining knowledge in the social work field.  She has realized greatly at how this information is going to help her work with people involved in the NASA program  She says one of the biggest jobs a social worker will entail when working with people employed with NASA is preparing them for their journey into space.  Along with the social worker being in helping relationships with the NASA employee who is about the voyage into space, it will be very important to work with their family as well.  This can leave a family falling to pieces without the help of the social worker to set goals with the family, share resources within the community with that family, and act as a support or counselor during this difficult time.  Someone who was employed with NASA would often find themselves transitioning from the real work into space, back into the real world again.  It is often a struggle for people to adjust coming back from space because so much has changed while they were gone.  social workers also work as a job of analyst and evaluator.  this could be helpful to NASA because the social worker would evaluate programs and see how well they have worked.

CHELSEA DAY  - A first  year recipient, and a resident of Swanton, Vermont. She is a first generation college student at Champlain College studying Social Work.  She hopes to work in drug and alcohol prevention.

COURTNEY NEWTON  - A first year recipient, and a resident of Swanton, Vermont.  She is a first year student majoring in elementary education at Johnson State College.  She says growing up she always knew she wanted to be an elementary school teacher.  Education is important to her because without it people would not be able to lean and grow.  She could act as a model for other Abenaki students.  She would like to go back to her community so that she can teach students, especially other Abenaki students.  Courtney could teach them about their culture and help them learn more about it.  She also says she would like to take her interest in space to education elementary school children. She plans on teaching kindergarten trough sixth grade so there will be different levels of space study that she will teach.  She would like to focus mostly on the solar system and how the sky works. She thinks it is important for children to learn about space so that they know what is going on around them.. The should know how the earth works and what makes up the solar system. Courtney says teachers and NASA work together to help each other learn and grow.  NASA uses their information and studies to further student's knowledge about space.  they get better and advance in technology because they learned and used that to help them.