BHUBANESWAR: Three students from the state have made it to the 10-member Under-19 team of NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge 2021.
For Rina Bagha, Dati Dandapani Patra and Kailash Chandra Barik, all aged 18 years, it is a dream come true. The team from the state will be representing India at the Challenge at Huntsville, Alabama, in April 2021.
Rina, who is a resident of Boudh, belongs to a poor family. She was chosen for the Challenge because of her talent in welding. Driven by the Covid crisis, Rina had taken up work at a welding shop in Chandrasekharpur to provide for her family, when she started being noticed.
“When the pandemic struck, I had just completed my Plus II. We were already in financial distress after my father died in 2016. The situation worsened due to the coronavirus outbreak. Hence, I decided to work. The owner of a welding shop in Chandrasekharpur gave me an opportunity to work there,” Rina said.
Rina’s work caught the attention of the authorities of ITI Bhubaneswar and later Navonmesh Prasar Foundation. While officials of ITI Bhubaneswar admitted her to their institute, the foundation helped her participate in the NASA Challenge. “We got to know about her from various sources and media reports. We reached out to her and were impressed by her talent. We recommended her admission in ITI. Now, she is busy preparing for the NASA Challenge,” ITI Bhubaneswar principal Jeetamitra Sathpathy said.
Dati, who is a resident of Ganjam, also works to support his family. At the age of 15, after his father died, he moved to Bengaluru to work at a welding shop. But, his stint there ended soon as the earnings were not enough for his family of four.
To earn and learn more, Dati returned home and enrolled himself in Skill Development Institute (SDI) in Bhubaneswar.
Kailash, a resident of tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj, acquired technical skills by working in his father’s cycle repair shop.