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Getting scholarship surely is a joyful moment, especially the most prestigious one ever exist. You may want to show off and bragging about your deserving achievement. Still, no matter how excited you are, don’t let your emotions get ahead of you. Moreover, in an age where people share almost everything on social media, be wise to express your feelings because you leave digital records online.
This terrible event of a woman losing NASA Scholarship can be a lesson for all of us. Before learning from this bitter and regretful event, let’s dig more on NASA scholarship first.
About NASA Scholarship, Internship, and Fellowship
NASA, stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is an independent agency of the US Federal Government. It is trusted responsible for science and technology related to air and space. The agency wants to pass and spread its missions and disciplines to the next generation by hand-on projects through scholarship, internship, and fellowship programs.
Most of the scholarship, internship, and fellowship program is intended for students pursuing studies in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields and only eligible for the US citizen. These 3 programs can change and differ dynamically from time to time depends on NASA’s needs, missions, and projects. Here are currently available NASA programs.
1. NASA Psyche Inspired Internship
The name “Psyche” takes after a first-time-ever made-of-metal asteroid. It is also the name of a NASA space mission, led by Arizona State University (ASU), to visit that asteroid which is orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Partnering with the ASU, NASA calls out undergraduate students coming from all areas of study to exercise their creative talents to share, explain, and highlight the excitement and innovation of scientific engineering content of NASA’s Psyche mission.
For the 2019 – 2020 period, 16 applicants (at least 1 slot secured for the ASU student) will be selected. By joining this internship, the interns will be supplied with a stipend of $250 per person to purchase materials needed for works. Besides that, the works will be presented and highlighted on the official Psyche website, NASA Centers, public events, and many more.
Visit this page to know more about the program.
2. NASA Internship
NASA Internship presents high school, undergraduate, and graduate students with an opportunity to experience challenging NASA-related research. The interns will work alongside experts and directly face the intriguing projects. Students have 3 chances of time to join the NASA Internship by fall, summer, and spring.
Be a NASA intern by clicking here.
3. NASA Pathways Internship
NASA Pathways internship is a preparatory course that is designated to help high school, undergraduate, and graduate students building the skills, knowledge, and qualifications needed later in work. They let the participants have the opportunity to work on challenging projects and getting paid in addition. As for the recent graduates, NASA specifically equips them with a dynamic development program to begin their real careers.
Learn more about the internship here.
4. NASA Scholarship
With the amount of $2,900, NASA scholarship opens for students from Asian American and Pacific Islander ethnicity enrolled as an undergraduate student in the US accredited college or university. Applicants are required to have a minimum GPA of 2.7 out of 4.0 and must come from one of these following field: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Computer Science.
With an exception for this, students with a nationality of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau are also welcomed to apply.
The information is posted on the APIA Scholars website.
For your information, NASA has also funded scholarship (awarded based on academic merits) and bursary (awarded based on financial needs) for students outside the US, such as for the National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate students.
Woman Loses NASA Scholarship
To show her excitement, a now-deleted Twitter account under the username of @NaomiH_official tweeted that she got accepted for a NASA Internship. Unfortunately, the words she chose were rude. Later on, the owner of the account was identified as a woman named Naomi H.
The controversial thread started with Naomi H. announced her NASA internship offer.
“EVERYONE SHUT THE F*** UP
I GOT ACCEPTED FOR A NASA INTERNSHIP“, she tweeted.
Retweeted 129 times and liked by 3,447 people, her scandalous tweet caught the attention of Homer Hickam, a former NASA engineer who is a member of the Users Advisory Group of the National Space Council at that moment.
Felt burdened to keep a good reputation of NASA, the man commented, “Language.” to warn her to watch her language.
To which she replied arrogantly, “Suck my d*** and balls I’m working at NASA”.
Then Hickam counterattacked, “And I am on the National Space Council that oversees NASA“.
Here’s the screenshot of her tweet, successfully taken by an unknown source before the account deleted.
It was not mentioned what kind of NASA scholarship or internship she received, but the offer was valid in August 2018.
Her harsh and profane reply brought calamity upon her. She lost her NASA internship offer overnight.
There was a mixed opinion among the Twitter user about whether a small mistake should cost her the once in a lifetime chance.
Some pointed out her mistake and agreed that she deserved the consequence of her attitude. Many people stated that any person shouldn’t speak that way, moreover a person recruited by NASA.
https://twitter.com/SweftyClouds/status/1032011717843275776
https://twitter.com/AndrewLope98/status/1031980672972455936
On the opposite side, there are also some defended her.
Alternatively, Homer Hickam should be less uptight about somebody being excited that they got to work at NASA. Since when is it unacceptable to swear on Twitter?
— Dan Miller (@meelar) August 21, 2018
Later, Hickam stated that Naomi losing her NASA’s internship had nothing to do with him as he never intended to get her in trouble and did not tell NASA about her personally. The old man shared follow-ups of the situation on his now-deleted personal blog post.
“I’m a Vietnam vet and not at all offended by the F-word. However, when I saw NASA and the word used together, it occurred to me that this young person might get in trouble if NASA saw it so I tweeted to her one word: “Language” and intended to leave it at that.
Soon, her friends took umbrage and said a lot of unkind things but long after I was gone as I immediately deleted my comments and blocked all concerned.
Later, I learned she had lost her offer for an internship with NASA. This I had nothing to do with nor could I since I do not hire and fire at the agency or have any say on employment whatsoever.
As it turned out, it was due to the NASA hashtag her friends used that called the agency’s attention to it long after my comments were gone.”
Based on his story, it can be concluded that it was NASA hashtag her friend included in her insulting tweet to Hickam that brought Naomi’s tweet to the eye of the space agency. He was also sorry for that, as he stated,
“For what it’s worth, I want to extend @NaomiH_official my deepest condolences for having this opportunity torn away from her by an old chud.”
Naomi eventually reached out and apologized to him. Regardless of the awful situation, Hickam believed that Naomi is actually capable and have the skills in the aerospace field. To which he proved by trying his best effort to help her, as stated in his writing.
“After talking to her, I am certain she deserves a position in the aerospace industry and I’m doing all I can to secure her one that will be better than she lost. I have also talked to the folks that had to do with her internship and made absolutely certain that there will be no black mark on her record.”
Lesson Learned
From Naomi’s experience in losing her NASA intership over her tweet, you already know what to do.
No matter who you are or what kind of jobs you work for, be wise and stay humble. Never underestimate and look down on the others. Just like a saying goes “You are what you say“, keep in mind that your words represent the kind of person you are. So, even though the intelligence is very important, the attitude that matters.
