Jenna Ebbers – Jan 24, 2025 – Lincoln Journal Star

My cmnt: When I picked my grandson up from Goodrich and asked if anything great happened at school he said, “We saw an astronaut.” I responded, “How was he?” Grandson responded, “She was fine.”

Eleven and a half years of college, another 10 years working as a scientist and 15 more years of astronaut training — that’s how long it took Jeanette Epps to get to space.

It took time, combined with immense amounts of hard work, perseverance and dedication, in order to see the stars from the International Space Station floating above Earth and to accomplish her lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut for NASA.

Now, just three short months after returning to gravity from her first mission into space in October, Epps, a New York native, is sharing her story with students to show them any goal can be accomplished, no matter how far off it seems.

“It took a lot of work and a lot of time. Nothing happens overnight, and you gotta be willing to put the time and effort in to get there,” she told the more than 200 students listening to her intently at Goodrich Middle School on Thursday afternoon.

As Epps walked into the gym at Goodrich wearing her official NASA jacket, the 250 honor roll and AVID students immediately broke into deafening cheers.

AVID is a program at Lincoln Public Schools that encourages students in grades 6-12 to explore a variety of elective courses and career paths to develop life skills like critical thinking, collaboration and relationship-building.

All eyes were on her throughout the hourlong presentation, where she shared stories of her training, life on the space station and the strength it took to accomplish her goal of going to space.

And when she was done, students gathered around her, asking for photos and autographs before she left.

“When she walked in, for them to start cheering and clapping the way they did, I mean, that just hits you in the heart,” said David Seizys, the AVID teacher at Goodrich who helped organize the presentation.

The special event was set up in collaboration with the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland to award students in the AVID program and those who made it onto the honor roll, and show them what hard work can accomplish. Additionally, Nebraska’s only astronaut and the president of the museum, Clay Anderson, was one of Epps’ mentors throughout her training.

During her speech, Epps showed students videos of her floating between quadrants of the space station and the view she looked out at every day in space. She also answered as many of the students’ burning questions as she could — including those about how astronauts use the restroom.

“That is one of the non-glamorous things that we get to do,” she said after explaining what a maximum absorbency garment is, which is worn under astronauts’ space suits.

Epps was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2009 after working for Ford Motor Co. in the Scientific Research Laboratory and later as a technical intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Throughout the 15 years of training she underwent at NASA in order to be selected for a mission into space, Epps traveled the world, spent weeks living in a submarine, learned to speak Russian and survived in the wilderness with hardly any supplies.

Before boarding the rocket that would take her through Earth’s atmosphere, into space and onto the International Space Station, Epps also learned how to draw her own blood, received some emergency medical training and prepared for the research she would conduct while there.

While aboard the orbiting laboratory, Epps and her fellow crew members not only studied space, but how their own bodies behaved in zero gravity by sampling their own blood to observe how their immune function changes in outer space.

In total, Epps spent about 235 days on the space station, launching on March 3 and returning seven months later last October.

The whole experience was a dream come true, she said. But on Thursday, her sights were set on inspiring a new generation of students to follow in her footsteps and become scientists and astronauts. Her goal was to show the Lincoln students that anyone can accomplish anything they put their mind to, she said.

“I’m hoping that the kids at least saw someone that potentially looked like them, someone who’s a goofy, normal human being who got to do some extraordinary things,” she said. “If she can do it, so can you.”

For Janise Rosas, an eighth grade student at Goodrich, Epps’ presentation was not only interesting, but inspirational. To see a woman of color thrive in a STEM-based career and even go to space was a meaningful experience, she said.

“That really shows that hard work can get you anywhere, and as long as you work hard, you can achieve anything you want to,” Rosas said. “I will take that with me for the rest of my life.”