Being a scientist is like being a detective, you follow clues to solve a mystery. So what I love about my job is the thrill of discovery, knowing that I am the first person to see and/or understand something, and the realization that I am adding to the body of knowledge that humans have produced.

A fascinating thing about where I work, is that our office (now) has six women and five men; the boss is female. This is very different from when I began working for NASA in 1988. There has been much progress in thirty years, but there is a lot more to do. There are several people who stand out in my mind as mentors when I was young, my two Latin teachers, Carol McChesney and Ruth Wells, Julius Staal who was the director of the planetarium at Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, and Edgar D. Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut. All of them instilled in me a desire to learn and encouraged me to follow my dreams. They believed in me. And I am proud to say, I still read Latin with two of my friends once a week.

For girls interested in space science, connect with a planetarium and an amateur astronomy club, and maybe even a ham radio club (you'll learn about the ionosphere). Don't be afraid to contact a scientist with questions. Many of us have shared our email addresses on the internet. Use it! Also, space science is a very broad topic that includes many disciplines such as (there are more sub-disciplines): X-ray astronomy, solar physics, magnetospheric physics, exoplanet studies, planetary science, Earth science. Learn a little about each to help with decisions about college majors and graduate school studies.