NASA has given three Cal State Long Beach students the opportunity to launch their careers through internships, jobs and fellowships.
Sam Koshy, who just received his master’s degree in May, obtained a fellowship from NASA that paid for his entire two-year master’s program at CSULB. Meanwhile, physics majors Jill Pestana and Stephanie Sodergren have each interned at NASA.
During their internships, Pestana and Sodergren worked on NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), which is a telescope carried on a Boeing 747 aircraft.
“I really enjoy applying my knowledge of SOFIA, physics and astronomy in order to create educational material,” Pestana said via email.
Sodergren said SOFIA was primarily a systems engineering internship with an additional side project dealing with education and public outreach for the SOFIA program.
After interning, both Sodergren and Pestana were offered jobs at NASA Ames Research Center.
“Since the end of my internship, I have been working with another intern [Jill Pestana]… on creating a new video series to introduce educators, students and the general public to the SOFIA program,” Sodergren said via email.
Sodergren said her group is in the process of completing their first video, which they wrote, filmed, starred in and edited themselves. They also created a virtual tour of the SOFIA aircraft online.
Sodergren, who has had three internships with NASA, said she gained the most experience through working with SOFIA.
“I had the opportunity to not only speak to the scientists who conduct astronomical observations aboard SOFIA, but to the engineers who designed it, and also how such a large-scale program is managed,” Sodergren said. “I even got to fly on one of SOFIA’s missions.”
Even though Sodergren’s first two internships with NASA were related to aerospace engineering, she said she might pursue medical physics and bioengineering now because she wants to be able to help people.
“Medical physics is a wide subject, but I am primarily interested in radiation oncology and diagnostic imaging that is used to treat cancer,” Sodergren said.
Pestana will graduate from CSULB with her bachelor’s degree this December and said she wants to go into energy research.
“After many different research projects and these internships, I have found myself concerned about energy,” Pestana said. “I would like to use my skills to research clean and sustainable energy and educate the public about research and science.”
Koshy, who finished his graduate education in 2006, put his education on hold for a few years and taught physics at Locke High School in Watts, Calif.
As a teacher, Koshy had more leisure time in the summer, so he decided to apply for a summer internship at NASA. When he applied, NASA reviewed his resume and suggested that he apply to receive a fellowship to go back to school and do research for them as well.
“What [NASA] did at that point was give me a $30,000 stipend for the year,” Koshy said.
Now that Koshy is done with his studies, he is on the lookout for employment. Koshy said he wants to work for an aerospace firm such as Raytheon, Boeing or SpaceX.
“Right now my skills are geared toward theoretical work,” Koshy said, “so I understand that in an aerospace firm it’s going to be difficult for me to find a position.”