Space Foundation Hosts Lockheed Martin Interns

For the third consecutive year, the Space Foundation will host Lockheed Martin interns from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other gulf region countries. The intern program is an annual summer international student training program. The program focuses on bringing international engineering students together from around the world to study the fundamentals of space from Lockheed Martin industry experts, and couples classroom-style training with professional mentoring and job training. Throughout the program, participants engage with young professionals, technology experts, and leadership to learn about all aspects of the space industry.  

“Our alumni have truly made this program what it is today. Their success is our success, and our students have gone on to work in their home country’s space industry. We are extremely proud of what they have accomplished, and honored that they are so engaged with the incoming class,” said Allison Sharpe, Space Fundamentals Training Program Coordinator, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.
 
One of the requirements of the program is that the interns, upon their return home, conduct student outreach to encourage students to follow a STEM career, thus creating a STEM pipeline and an organic work force. This is where the Space Foundation’s education team steps in to support the intern program. The Space Foundation’s educators train the interns to take the engineering principles they have already mastered and translate that into fun, engaging, hands-on activities for school-aged children. This could mean building and launching rockets, participating in design challenges, or investigating the Solar System.
 
The interns will visit the Space Foundation Discovery Center in Colorado Springs on July 29 to learn some hands-on activities they can use with students. The Space Foundation education team will also instruct them on how to work with students, and will provide follow-up instruction with them during a return visit on Aug. 3. The interns will then join the Space Foundation education team later in August on its annual trip to Charles Country, Md., to provide professional development to educators in Charles County Public Schools.

“This is a tremendous partnership that has great possibilities to create a STEM pipeline for the gulf region, and especially the UAE, which is planning on landing a rover on Mars in 2021 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UAE,” said Vice President-Education, Bryan DeBates. “We are truly honored that Lockheed Martin has chosen to work with our amazing educators, and we are looking forward to what this partnership will do for STEM education in the region.”

Pictured: photos from last year’s internship program

This article is part of Space Watch: July 2016 (Volume: 15, Issue: 7).