BATESVILLE — There is nothing easy about growing up and deciding what to do in life. Even harder is deciding to move back home, regroup and refocus; however, for one Batesville man, that was just the beginning of what was to come.
Jason Waits enrolled in the Doyle “Rog” Rogers Jr. Aviation Maintenance Program at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville last May. This May, he will be one of 60 community college students who will travel to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to be part of the pilot National Community College Aerospace Scholars Program.
Waits said he began his first college experience at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville after graduating from Batesville High School in 1998.
“I studied mechanical engineering but didn’t finish and started working in automotive shops in the Fayetteville area,” Waits said. “After a handful of years, I decided I needed to get things together. So three years ago, I moved back in with my parents here in Batesville. I worked for the hospital as a laboratory courier for two years, paid off all my debts and saved up some money.”
He said he found out about the aviation program at UACCB and believed this was perfect for him because it would allow him to enter a technology field. He said he attended the aviation graduation ceremony last spring at the hangar and met with the faculty to learn more about the program.
“I was at a time in my life when I didn’t think that going back to school was attainable, that it would be too difficult and too time consuming. I decided to set some goals, and now I’ve found a renewed interest in furthering my education,” Waits said.
Wait s said he learned about the NASA program from St e ph e n Paull, aviation maintenance director. Waits said Paull helped him get the necessary paperwork together to apply for the program, and he was lucky enough to be one of 250 students selected to be involved in the process. He said the proposal involved three essays and a drawing.
“They basically wanted us to use our imagination and come up with a robotic rover mission to Mars,” Waits said. “We had to do an abstract of our mission, which included the objectives we would have to complete [for] a successful mission - in a roundabout way, what kind of equipment we would use and just an overall overview abstract.”
He said students were given two weeks between each project, and all projects were submitted electronically. The second project was a little harder to research because it dealt with the budget aspect of the mission.
“You are introducing new technologies, so it’s hard to put a price on it and determine a timeline,” Waits said. “I was able to look at a lot of resources online to get a basis for where I could start making my estimations. The third part was the full proposal, and then I had to submit a drawing of my rover.”
He said he completed his drawing with the use of some computer drawing programs; then he asked if he could submit extra drawings.
“I did a few more drawings just to kind of do a little extra,” he said. “I wanted to make sureI was getting my point across. Each portion was graded, and I made a 94 on my abstract, 96 on my budget, a 100 on my proposal and a 100 on my drawing.”
Waits said a week after he turned in his drawings, he received the news that he was chosen to go to Houston.
“I was lucky enough to be one of those chosen,” he said. “I will get to meet with the engineers, scientists and astronauts - make some very good networking contacts.”
He said he would like to one day work for NASA or a private firm that deals with NASA as an airframe or powerplant technician. He also hopes to continue to further his education.
Three Rivers, Pages 130 on 04/11/2010