Motivational Video for Students in Virus Quarantine

Recognizing how difficult it might be for many students to stay focused on their studies while quarantined at home, I have prepared a 15-minute motivational video (link below). The attached image is part of the video. It is a reproduction of the the introductory page from my report on my 1960 high school science fair project (on how rockets might someday parachute back to earth from space). Please note the second sentence in the report, ‘Someday, I also plan to participate in this great undertaking.’ I was 14 years old when I wrote that sentence. Twenty-five years later (at age 39) I was in orbit on my rookie space shuttle mission. Clearly, that is a dream come true by any human’s definition. But it was far from ‘ordained by destiny’ that I would end up as an astronaut and this video tells that story. It is a story of the importance of goal-focus and tenacity in difficult times…as these times are for all of us and particularly for students who are facing their stressful new world of home/online school.