By Lauren Daley The Standard-Times

Sunday

Jul 8, 2018 at 10:38 AM


Hincapie is also the new student rep to the BCC Board of Trustees

As a little girl in Medellín, Colombia, Sara Hincapie always felt drawn to the moon.

“I loved looking at the moon. I always felt safe looking at it,” said Hincapie, 20.

“I remember being 4 or 5, going down the street, holding my mom’s hand, and thinking it was interesting how this giant orb in the sky was looking after me. No matter where I moved, it was there following me.”

Fittingly, Hincapie made a giant leap for Bristol Community College students as the first to land in a scholars program at NASA.

The engineering major was selected to travel to NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia to participate in the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars project this past school year.

She was selected from some 300 community college students from across the U.S. to be part of NCAS, BCC said. The five-week program culminated in a four-day on-site event at Langley Research Center and offered students the opportunity to interact with NASA engineers and learn more about careers in science and engineering.

The program aims to give community college STEM students an authentic NASA experience and encourages them to finish a two-year degree or transfer to a four-year university to pursue a NASA-related field or career, according to NASA’s Web site.

“There are role models that venture forth, chart new territory, and others follow suit. Sara is a role model,” said Mary Hyde, director of the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation at BCC.

LSAMP, of which Hincapie is a part, is a federally run STEM grant program aimed at helping under-represented minority students excel in STEM fields, explained Hyde. Hyde is Hincapie’s LSAMP adviser.

“This is the first time that any (BCC) student has gone to NASA, and because of Sara going, now others are applying,” said Hyde. “Sara’s setting the trend and opening the doors.

“In this region, a lot of students like to stay close to home; they’re afraid of falling off face of earth if they go to Boston,” said Hyde. “But because Sara ventured forth into uncharted territory, now everyone feels like this can be done.”

LEADING THE WAY

Hincapie, who was just recently elected to represent the student body on the BCC Board of Trustees for 2018-19, is leading in more ways than one.

Educators across the nation are pushing for more women to get involved in STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. BCC has a Women in STEM Club to encourage just that. Hincapie is a member.

“The Women in STEM Club is there as a support mechanism to encourage females to stay the course,” explained Hyde. "Where guys are typically, ‘This is for me; I’m going to be an engineer’ females often feel they don’t belong, or are intimidated.”

Hincapie said, “When I was younger, I thought STEM was (mostly) guys, but now I see that there’s definitely a place for women. It can seem scary, because sometimes you’re the only woman in a class. But you think, ‘Maybe if another woman sees me here, there will be a few more.’”

In addition to working some 30 hours a week, Hincapie also a member of the STEM Club, the Women in STEM Club and maintains a 3.8 GPA.

In order to graduate sooner, she is currently taking summer courses — including, just as an elective, Intro to Architecture course, because architecture is “a passion.”

Robotics is another passion: “I love robotics so much, that any time I see there’s a competition, I volunteer for it,” she said.

After BCC, she plans on transferring to a four-year school, but is undecided yet where she’ll apply.

“Right now, my current thought is environmental engineering, or medical engineering,” she said.

SHOOTING FOR THE MOON

Hincapie said she “wanted to take a risk” after seeing fliers for the NASA program around campus.

“One day, I don’t know what hit me, but I started thinking: ‘Why am I holding myself back, when I feel this in my heart as something I want to do?’ I had a self-realization and went to my adviser… got transcripts, and applied as quickly as I could,” she said.

She heard back last May that she was accepted.

She designed a Mars Rover as part of a five-week online portion of the program, which also included “taking a NASA class online, doing Web chats to ([meet) astronauts, see what researchers were doing, submit questions, take tests,” she said.

“You could make (the rover) however you wanted — we had to explain chemical compositions, what materials I’d use, the science behind design, tell them why (parts are) shaped a certain way, what wheels are made of and why.”

The rover got her accepted to the second, more selective, portion of the program: four days at NASA’s Langley Research Center, where she got an inside look at NASA missions and science, networked with NASA scientists and engineers, and more.

When she got word that she made the cut in August, “I was really happy; I was laughing. I was telling myself, ‘I can’t believe it,’” she said.

She flew to Langley Research Center in September.

“They kept us busy,” she said with a laugh.

Part of the program was designing a rover with a team using EV3 kits, “which are like a very interactive LEGO kits that you can program and wire.”

What did she learn at NASA?

“There’s no limit to what you can do if you put your mind to it,” she said. “I started out saying ‘I don’t know if I can make it,’ to ‘Oh my God, I‘m here at NASA.’

“Seeing women working there was so inspiring,”she said. “It made me want to come back to BCC and say, ‘Hey there’s women there!’… I want to inspire other students…One thing I learned at NASA — if there’s an opportunity, and in your heart you’re saying yes, go for it.”

Hyde said that other students have already applied this year for the same program; she credits Hincapie for paving the way.

“What makes Sara outstanding, is not just that she’s an A-student, but her being an immigrant, she’s finding opportunities that this country can offer her,” said Hyde. “Through her sheer tenacity, she excels.”