Speaker 1: Well, Luke is here a Black Tech Green Money. I
Speaker 1: am super excited for this one. I get to talk
Speaker 1: to my friend. I should vote as a former NASA
Speaker 1: rocket scientist, tech founder, extraordinari, somebody I've been a big
Speaker 1: fan of for a long time, and soon to be
Speaker 1: astronaut joining the upcoming Blue Origin New Shepherd flight crew.
Speaker 1: She found a lingo and tech company. This already serves,
Speaker 1: you know, ten thousand plus. I'm sure that number has
Speaker 1: grown by now students and is only mission equipped one
Speaker 1: million learners with them skills over the next decade. Welcome.
Speaker 1: I used it to Black Tech Green Money. It's good
Speaker 1: to see you will It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1: So you spoken about how I want to go all
Speaker 1: the way back. Your guidance counsel has suggested cosmetology, which
Speaker 1: is fine, but your FOB encouraged you to pursue math.
Speaker 1: And how did that moment shape and help this I
Speaker 1: should become who she is now.
Speaker 2: Looking back, I remember feeling so angry when I was
Speaker 2: talking to guidance counselor because it wasn't the field. It
Speaker 2: was this idea that she was limiting me. She was
Speaker 2: sort of prescribing the boundaries of my life. You weren't
Speaker 2: good at school, therefore you're not going to be good
Speaker 2: at life. And in that moment, I remember not knowing
Speaker 2: what to do about it, right, because I feel like
Speaker 2: when you're in high school, you just believe what people
Speaker 2: tell you, especially when they're adults, and especially when they
Speaker 2: have titles like guidance. And I went home and I
Speaker 2: was talking to my dad, and my dad was furious,
Speaker 2: and he said, Ayisha, you cannot subscribe to what other
Speaker 2: people tell you about yourself. But in that moment, I
Speaker 2: just felt so demoralized that I proceeded to community college
Speaker 2: without applying to college. And what I realized in that
Speaker 2: environment was that my reality, my dreams mattered, and that
Speaker 2: I could turn perception into facts simply by believing in
Speaker 2: having goals and ideas that were outside the norm. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, I took out a piece of paper and
Speaker 2: I just made up this life, like I want to graduate,
Speaker 2: I want to go to a good school. I want
Speaker 2: to go to University of Michigan, go blue. I want
Speaker 2: to become a rocket scientist. I want to do things
Speaker 2: that people laughed at me for saying I wanted to do,
Speaker 2: and all of those things became real and that's when
Speaker 2: I started to realize that like we, especially as people
Speaker 2: of color, cannot allow ourselves to be defined by anything
Speaker 2: other what we choose to be.
Speaker 1: I love that, and so community college to NASA is
Speaker 1: a humongous leap. Humongous And for that Ayisha that started
Speaker 1: community college, what is it you know now about what
Speaker 1: it takes to make that leap that she didn't know?
Speaker 2: I think I was so caught up in trying to
Speaker 2: follow the traditional script that it could not be authentically me.
Speaker 2: Like I remember studying for exams and just freezing and
Speaker 2: not being able to remember anything that I studied or memorized.
Speaker 2: And so I think the first thing was that I
Speaker 2: needed to understand that just because I wasn't good at
Speaker 2: traditional testing doesn't mean that I wasn't going to be
Speaker 2: good at life. And once I just sort of let
Speaker 2: go of expectations and fear, which was the fear of
Speaker 2: ending up broke, like you know. Well, one of the
Speaker 2: things that I don't share but I want to talk
Speaker 2: more about was when I was in community college making
Speaker 2: the transition to go to university, I took out a
Speaker 2: life insurance policy on myself. I took it out for
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars because I was so afraid that if
Speaker 2: I died when I was in college, my parents were
Speaker 2: going to be broke and they were never going to
Speaker 2: be able to pay that debt back. And I think
Speaker 2: about that time in my life and I just felt
Speaker 2: so I felt so confined, I felt so discouraged, I
Speaker 2: felt so scared, and me saying, you know what, I
Speaker 2: know what it's like to fail, I know what it's
Speaker 2: like to work, I know what it's like to be tired,
Speaker 2: I know what it's like to be hungry, and I'm
Speaker 2: not going back to that, And like, using that as
Speaker 2: a source of strength was really what propelled me to
Speaker 2: do what I'm doing now.
Speaker 1: You chose aerospace engineering because you were interested in science fiction.
Speaker 1: What I'm a big science I love scien like specifically
Speaker 1: near future science fiction, like things that can happen in
Speaker 1: our lifetimes, like what stories as fired you and how
Speaker 1: do they influence the way you think.
Speaker 2: So I used to read a lot. I was a
Speaker 2: gymnast and we were on the road and it was
Speaker 2: always kind of like me and like a book right
Speaker 2: in the back of the car. I used to be
Speaker 2: able to read books in the car without getting motions sick.
Speaker 2: Like I missed those days. But one of the things
Speaker 2: about becoming an aerospace engineer that I don't share as
Speaker 2: often is I kind of was bartering with God. Now
Speaker 2: I know you're not supposed to do that, right, but
Speaker 2: it was one of those things where I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I want to do this incredible, crazy, badass thing. And
Speaker 2: I literally was like, dear God, if you can hear
Speaker 2: me and you want to let me know that you're
Speaker 2: real and dream's are real, then I will become a
Speaker 2: rocket scientist. Like, yes, I love science fiction, but I
Speaker 2: had not seen any black female rocket scientists Like yeah,
Speaker 2: and the only people that I saw who worked in
Speaker 2: aerospace worked in aerodynamics for automotive companies, and like, I
Speaker 2: was not about that life. And so it really was
Speaker 2: a transformational experience because I started to understand that like
Speaker 2: through prayer, through preparation, and through resilience, like I really
Speaker 2: could do anything. So tell me.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious, Like you just talked about people going
Speaker 1: theodynamics and like, like what is the is are these
Speaker 1: like tougher programs to get into? Like that was like
Speaker 1: the selection process, like you were selected to do this, like,
Speaker 1: how does that work?
Speaker 2: So I think the first part for school, there are
Speaker 2: different criterias depending on where you go, right, I think
Speaker 2: that's sort of like the first selection is making the
Speaker 2: grades necessary in order to declare, whether it's two years
Speaker 2: into your degree or in high school being able to
Speaker 2: enter and do some pre engineering. So there's that. I
Speaker 2: think after then you have what industry has in terms
Speaker 2: of the their qualifiers. And I want to kind of
Speaker 2: say that I think a lot of it is I
Speaker 2: think a lot of it's BS. And what I mean
Speaker 2: by that is I truly believe in skills based testing.
Speaker 2: I believe in evaluating the whole person. I gave a
Speaker 2: talk once with the CEO of a multi billion dollar
Speaker 2: company and I came after him and I was like, look,
Speaker 2: the reality of it is that you and I are
Speaker 2: sharing the same stage. We came from two different places
Speaker 2: and we ended up at the same spot. And that's
Speaker 2: because I had the skill and I had the talent.
Speaker 2: I didn't have the opportunity. We all know, right, genius
Speaker 2: is evenly distributed. Opportunity is not. And so when I
Speaker 2: think about the question about requirements, I actually am looking
Speaker 2: forward to a future where a lot of those prerequisites
Speaker 2: go away, and we really start looking at the people
Speaker 2: because I'm living in a company and an environment where
Speaker 2: I made it up right in twenty twenty five. I
Speaker 2: made up my job. I made up the logo, I
Speaker 2: made up the color scheme. I made up all the
Speaker 2: positions that the people do. But we've been in business
Speaker 2: for twelve years. So it was.
Speaker 1: Like, let's talk about that, Like what is the mindset
Speaker 1: shift that's different in a NASA engineer to entrepreneurship and
Speaker 1: how than to astronaut? Like how how do you have
Speaker 1: to change how you think?
Speaker 2: I think what happened was instead of me thinking and
Speaker 2: having the safety net, so to speak, of the government,
Speaker 2: I decided to bet on myself. The transition from NASA
Speaker 2: to working in a small business really became. It really
Speaker 2: was about me meeting people in the valley, some of
Speaker 2: whom I'm still friends with to this day, and understanding
Speaker 2: that a lot of folks had a PowerPoint and a
Speaker 2: dream and they were getting funded. I know you've seen it,
Speaker 2: so people are more capable than others, And I'll just
Speaker 2: let you interpret that however you want to interpret that.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking, wait a second, I got two
Speaker 2: degrees from Michigin. But I don't think that I can
Speaker 2: run a company. Why why, Like, what's the difference between
Speaker 2: me and you? You're doing what I would like to
Speaker 2: be doing simply because you believe that you should and
Speaker 2: I'm qualified and I believe that I can't. So that
Speaker 2: shift was what caused me to go out and try
Speaker 2: to make it happen. And I'm not going to romanticize
Speaker 2: the first few years of starting a business. You know
Speaker 2: it is hard, right, I mean, I'm CouchSurfing. I'm talking
Speaker 2: to supportive pets and animals about my business because I
Speaker 2: was too afraid to talk to my family. I mean,
Speaker 2: listen to the dogs told me I could do it, So
Speaker 2: I did it.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: But the mentality shift is really like, look, why do
Speaker 2: you spend so much time counting yourself out? Because you
Speaker 2: are internalizing false societal narratives like you have to love
Speaker 2: yourself the way that Kanye loves himself. I tell people
Speaker 2: that all the time, like go hard or go home
Speaker 2: and go hard for yourself and you will do amazing things.
Speaker 2: And so my journey is like as much as I
Speaker 2: want people to go into space and science like I
Speaker 2: would love it if you did. But the reality of
Speaker 2: it is, I want you to look at my story
Speaker 2: and say, every single time somebody told I you should
Speaker 2: that she could not, she did, I can do it too, right.
Speaker 2: It's just about being dogged in the pursuit of excellence
Speaker 2: and whatever success means for you in your life.
Speaker 1: How are you defining success these days?
Speaker 2: In wealth?
Speaker 1: Even let's do both. How are you defining both success
Speaker 1: and wealth?
Speaker 2: I'm defining success as accomplishing the goals that are important
Speaker 2: to me. I like to look at my life on
Speaker 2: five year iterations, and so for the first five years,
Speaker 2: I wanted to work for NASA, do cool things, worked
Speaker 2: on small spacecraft, worked on aircraft, did that. And then
Speaker 2: after that I wanted to become a business person. I'm
Speaker 2: twelve years in that game, still doing it. Created another company,
Speaker 2: raised a couplement million of venture capital, like that's great,
Speaker 2: love it. And then after that I wanted to figure
Speaker 2: out how do I put what I do in the
Speaker 2: celebrity track, so to speak? Right, how do I become
Speaker 2: a superstar in engineering? And I thought, okay, well I'm
Speaker 2: going to go to space once again. And I said
Speaker 2: I'm going to space. People were like I don't think
Speaker 2: you can do that. I'm like, I get that, but
Speaker 2: I tell you that I'm in aerospace, and you laugh
Speaker 2: at my face anyway, So why do I just go
Speaker 2: the rest of the way and double down and let's
Speaker 2: go to space. So I look at the successes. Did
Speaker 2: you build a company, is it working, is it thriving? Yes?
Speaker 2: Did you set out to achieve what it is that
Speaker 2: you wanted to achieve in your personal and financial life? Right? Okay, yes?
Speaker 2: But the other piece is the wealth of doing things
Speaker 2: that matter. My goal is to be a bedtime story.
Speaker 2: That's wealth to me. I'm creating endowment so that people
Speaker 2: will study under my name long after I'm dead and
Speaker 2: I'm done and I'm ash. I want to make sure
Speaker 2: that the story lasts and that it's remarkable and people
Speaker 2: feel inspired by it, and when they hear it, they're
Speaker 2: just like, WHOA, So she did what? She did what?
Speaker 2: And hopefully that story will inspire others to reach hire
Speaker 2: and do the same.
Speaker 1: You know, you played a pivotal role in bringing the
Speaker 1: SpaceX rocket landing into the Bahamas and talking about like
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, like like how'd that happen? How'd you
Speaker 1: make this happen.
Speaker 2: Well, I will say that there were a lot of
Speaker 2: for thinking people that were involved in that historic partnership agreement.
Speaker 2: But I want to go back to this idea of
Speaker 2: being unrealistic, because when we started down that path, people
Speaker 2: were like, Nah, the United States is never I'm like,
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that we can't we go do it.
Speaker 2: And what I wanted to see was participation and what
Speaker 2: is going to become a trillion dollar industry if it's
Speaker 2: not already by non traditional players, and for the Bahamas
Speaker 2: to have the foresight to leverage the infrastructure that has
Speaker 2: been built since the Apollo program and then to use
Speaker 2: that along with their tourism industry to say, hey, not
Speaker 2: only are we sun, sand and sea, we're now space
Speaker 2: is just revolutionary. And I'm incredibly proud to be part
Speaker 2: of that work. And so now you have the option
Speaker 2: you can go to Kennedy in Florida and you can
Speaker 2: watch launches, but you can also go to the Bahamas
Speaker 2: and you can see landings.
Speaker 1: So what does that now mean for the future their
Speaker 1: space economy in the Bahamas.
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's such a big question. It's almost
Speaker 2: hard to define because space transforms everything. It touches, and like,
Speaker 2: you need everybody for space. I mean, I'm rocking my
Speaker 2: Lions shirt because this is really the Super Bowl that
Speaker 2: I wanted and I just can't let that go. But
Speaker 2: space needs lawyers, Space needs accountants, Space needs doctors, Space
Speaker 2: needs scientists, Space needs all people. And what happens is
Speaker 2: you need machinists, you need welders. The infrastructure that is
Speaker 2: required to support space touches nearly every vertical in an economy.
Speaker 2: And so for the Bahamas, I think it means stem
Speaker 2: education and people having a place to go. They're going
Speaker 2: to be able to live and work in the same place.
Speaker 2: I think it means they're going to start to see
Speaker 2: their science and their experiments which are focused on monitoring
Speaker 2: our Earth and protecting our oceans reaching new heights. I
Speaker 2: think a record number of people are going to get
Speaker 2: to see and experience space from the Bahamas. And I'm
Speaker 2: honored to be the first person of Behaman heritage to
Speaker 2: go to space. And so I'm really really excited about
Speaker 2: the economic benefits as well as the overall benefits for
Speaker 2: climate and Earth and the out years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's dig in on that, you know, because I
Speaker 1: think about those opportunities just described, and I wonder like
Speaker 1: what us as black entrepreneurs should be thinking about when
Speaker 1: you're thinking about the growing space industry. What should we
Speaker 1: be paying attention to when we're looking for opportunity.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of opportunity in space. And you know,
Speaker 2: I take a deep breath because as a small business,
Speaker 2: I never thought that my company would be involved in
Speaker 2: such a momentous project because I thought of ourselves as small.
Speaker 2: But when you look at the space companies, I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm going to space on a rocket from a company
Speaker 2: that wasn't even created when I was working at NASA.
Speaker 2: That's wild, right, I mean SpaceX was just getting started
Speaker 2: when I was there. And so really it's about daring
Speaker 2: to dream and having nothing that you want to pursue
Speaker 2: be too radical or too extreme enough. I mean, look
Speaker 2: at intuitive machines, look at what's going on with people
Speaker 2: looking to provide cargoes to the National Space Station, or
Speaker 2: you know, power beaming or cleaning up space debris. A
Speaker 2: lot of those ideas they're not coming from large companies,
Speaker 2: they're from small and so I would bring our innovation,
Speaker 2: I would bring our ingenuity, I would bring our downright
Speaker 2: scrappiness and willingness to persist to the game, and you know,
Speaker 2: feel confident that you can participate, and so talk.
Speaker 1: To us about what it's like to train for this
Speaker 1: astronaut experience, like take us in the journey.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I've been training for the better part of
Speaker 2: the last year. And when I tell you I'm having
Speaker 2: so much fun, you get a chance go to my
Speaker 2: Instagram Ashabo and peep the latest training videos. I am giggling,
Speaker 2: I'm squealing the guys like she's having too much fun.
Speaker 2: I am loving it. I pulled six gee's in an
Speaker 2: FAA approved Human centerfuge, which it's essentially designed to mimic
Speaker 2: what you can expect to experience inforces in the ascent
Speaker 2: and descent. And I was like again and again, I
Speaker 2: was bus like a kid on a carnival ride. I
Speaker 2: love it. But this isn't just about fun. It's also
Speaker 2: about being prepared mentally and physically so that I can
Speaker 2: conduct science as part of my mission. I partnered with
Speaker 2: Winston Salem, and you know, Winston Salem is in HBCU,
Speaker 2: but they also have a leading astrobotany lab. And what
Speaker 2: I wanted to be able to do and kind of
Speaker 2: the tide of the question that you just asked about,
Speaker 2: you know, black folks and participating in space. I wanted
Speaker 2: to take our space intellect and genius and I wanted
Speaker 2: to leverage it on my mission to produce world class research.
Speaker 2: And that's what you see when we get involved and
Speaker 2: we participate. And so we're going to be looking at
Speaker 2: how plants respond to space. There's a huge agricultural focus.
Speaker 2: We're genetically sequencing crop plants and the idea is to
Speaker 2: apply the results to food security here on Earth, because
Speaker 2: if you can grow plants in inhospitable environments, you can
Speaker 2: grow them in food deserts here.
Speaker 1: So I like to ask guess, like what's in like
Speaker 1: their EBC, their everyday carry And I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give a little bit of a twist on this for you.
Speaker 1: Like I wonder, like what is necessary if I USU
Speaker 1: you to take to space and why?
Speaker 2: Well, I think the first thing that's necessary for me
Speaker 2: to take to space is my behaving heritage and my father.
Speaker 2: I lost my father at the beginning of this year,
Speaker 2: and I can remember not knowing like how am I
Speaker 2: going to get out of bed? And how am I
Speaker 2: going to do this, and one of my close friends
Speaker 2: purchased a star, and she named the star my dad's name,
Speaker 2: and she's like, for everywhere he can't be, that you are,
Speaker 2: and when you go to space, you're going to be
Speaker 2: just a little bit closer to his star. And I
Speaker 2: remember thinking just about the importance of looking at the
Speaker 2: night sky and the importance of really being like our
Speaker 2: ancest the wildest dreams, Like we talk about that all
Speaker 2: the time. And I looked at my dad, my dad's
Speaker 2: text messages, and when he first found out that I
Speaker 2: was going, he luck me this beautiful message about all
Speaker 2: the people coming before him being proud of me, and
Speaker 2: all the people who will come after me being proud
Speaker 2: of me, and to make sure that I not only
Speaker 2: meet this moment, but that it's not my moment, it's
Speaker 2: our moment. And I find a way to share that dream.
Speaker 2: And so I think the first part is just realizing
Speaker 2: that I'm having something. I'm having the opportunity to do
Speaker 2: something that my family and he would have been proud of.
Speaker 2: The second is I've been traveling around the world collecting
Speaker 2: literal dreams from students from parents from Kenya to India
Speaker 2: to the Bahamas and Kentucky, the NCR and those are
Speaker 2: going to space, they're going to return to them marked
Speaker 2: in space. And the the idea is to bring space home,
Speaker 2: right because if you can write your dream, and your
Speaker 2: dream can go to space and return to you, it's
Speaker 2: further evidence that your dream is real and it matters.
Speaker 2: And then the last thing is, I'm carrying the flag
Speaker 2: from the Moon with me. Now you might be like, wait, what, Yes,
Speaker 2: the flag from Apollo twelve that Pete Conrad took to
Speaker 2: the Moon is going to be flying with me, and
Speaker 2: it's a powerful symbol of the past, the present, and
Speaker 2: the future of space. And it was loaned to me
Speaker 2: by Pete's wife, Nancy. She literally said, go to the
Speaker 2: collection in the museum, go get that flag, and go
Speaker 2: send it to aacious house. Because what I want I
Speaker 2: want the world to see that the next fifty years
Speaker 2: of space is going to look a whole lot different
Speaker 2: than the last. And those three things are really what
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about. And then the ability to take that
Speaker 2: knowledge and take that inspiration and educate and inspire through
Speaker 2: the products that we've created at LINGO. We have space
Speaker 2: lessons that are getting rolled out with this launch. And
Speaker 2: so it's all to me about elevating right, like lifting
Speaker 2: as I climb and making sure that when I leave,
Speaker 2: I leave this place better than how I found it.
Speaker 1: If you would have started another tech company tomorrow, like
Speaker 1: what problem would you solve?
Speaker 2: I think the idea is to exit and chill on
Speaker 2: the beach.
Speaker 1: Listen.
Speaker 2: I was like the audacity someone who has done that.
Speaker 2: You're like, if you were just starting another tech company to.
Speaker 1: It's like, I'm good, I'm really really really good, Like
Speaker 1: oh that is it gives me all.
Speaker 2: List The key in life is to not look like
Speaker 2: what you've been through. So there's what I'll say. I
Speaker 2: was going to start a nonprofit tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I would be focused on education and opportunity. I've been
Speaker 2: traveling around in exchange for keynotes, I've been building the
Speaker 2: funds to create endowments, and so I create an endowment
Speaker 2: at my community college. I was really honored last year
Speaker 2: to give a keynote at a conference, and FLU Corporation
Speaker 2: then donated new lab equipment to my college, and I
Speaker 2: was like, yes, I really want to use what it
Speaker 2: is that I've created for good. And I wanted to
Speaker 2: be invested in education and legal in medicine. I mean,
Speaker 2: I've now gone through a couple attempts at egg freezing,
Speaker 2: and that's a whole nother podcast, right, Like fertility and
Speaker 2: childbirth and all those things. They need us, we need us,
Speaker 2: and so I want to be part of funding the
Speaker 2: pathways to make sure that there are more professionals of
Speaker 2: a diverse background who are able to prove the care,
Speaker 2: whether it's legal, medical, or otherwise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you're going to be on this journey
Speaker 1: as a real engineer, real you know, aerospace engineering experience,
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering and I'm curious about what you're hoping
Speaker 1: to contribute to this team into this mission.
Speaker 2: You know. One of the things that I love about
Speaker 2: this mission is I think that the crew really reflects
Speaker 2: people on Earth, right, And I don't want to live
Speaker 2: on a planet that doesn't have music. I don't want
Speaker 2: to live on a planet that doesn't have news. I mean,
Speaker 2: up until earlier this year, I was a news junkie.
Speaker 2: I had to tune that down. Yeah, yeah, personal, I
Speaker 2: think you can resonate. I like to stay informed. I
Speaker 2: like to listen to the podcast. And I'm also not
Speaker 2: about prerequisites. I think if that is your dream, you
Speaker 2: should pursue it. And so I'm excited to be able
Speaker 2: to hold up science and to hold up what people
Speaker 2: consider to be traditional as being an aerospace engineer. But
Speaker 2: I'm the aerospace engineer that almost failed high school. And
Speaker 2: my story is that you can transcend, you can overcome,
Speaker 2: and it's not where you start, it's how you finish.
Speaker 2: And so I'm really proud to be able to walk
Speaker 2: that path alongside a non traditional yet inspiring crew.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know, do you how do we go from
Speaker 1: celebrating individual black success in stem to making systemic changes
Speaker 1: that increase representation so we get more issues just because
Speaker 1: that's how it works instead of oh, he's an anomaly.
Speaker 2: I think part of what I've been enjoying about this
Speaker 2: process is people learning about the journey and the story.
Speaker 2: It's me being able to talk to people like you
Speaker 2: and being like, look, you know, we've really gone through
Speaker 2: some things, right And before this mission, I felt like
Speaker 2: I was known in my segment of tech, right, Like,
Speaker 2: if you were a startup entrepreneur, you probably knew me.
Speaker 2: If you're an aerospace probably knew me. And now this
Speaker 2: exposure is going wide and I'm literally getting notes from
Speaker 2: parents around the world who we are saying, my daughter
Speaker 2: saw you and she's excited. She's doing her project on you.
Speaker 2: Or you know, my daughters wanted an astronaut costume, but
Speaker 2: it's not a costume. It's a uniform for the job
Speaker 2: she's going to have in her future. The representation it matters.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of data that shows that middle
Speaker 2: school girls don't pursue these feels because they don't see themselves.
Speaker 2: And it's also the same for people of color, right
Speaker 2: they think that they're traditionally dominated by people who are
Speaker 2: not like them. And these environments are inhospitable. And I'm
Speaker 2: not here to say that it's going to be sunshine,
Speaker 2: rainbows and lollipops. But I didn't like the environment I
Speaker 2: was in, so I built my own. I did not
Speaker 2: like what was available in the educational market, so I
Speaker 2: built my own. And so I think, what I really
Speaker 2: am trying to demonstrate is that you matter, You have power,
Speaker 2: and you can choose to change the world no matter
Speaker 2: where you are, no matter what age you may think
Speaker 2: you're at, and if you apply yourself, the outcome will
Speaker 2: surprise you.
Speaker 1: You know you're joining And unfortunately, a short legacy, but
Speaker 1: you know, a legacy for real like the May Jamison's,
Speaker 1: you know, and the others. Very few black women who
Speaker 1: have been in the space. What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2: It means everything because we're doing it together. I had
Speaker 2: the opportunity earlier this year to attend the largest meetup
Speaker 2: of female astronauts at the un and you had Me, Keisha,
Speaker 2: Jeannette Doctor Practer all in one room, and those who
Speaker 2: were not in the room, they were reaching out out.
Speaker 2: The four of us are half of the African American
Speaker 2: women who've either gone to space or who are manifested
Speaker 2: to go to space. And it was all hugs, and
Speaker 2: it was all advice, and it was all I'm here
Speaker 2: for you. And So when I think about being yet
Speaker 2: another data point of excellence, of carrying the flag, of
Speaker 2: moving forward the story, I'm excited about highlighting their stories.
Speaker 2: And I'm also excited about a future where we're one
Speaker 2: of many and not one of the few.
Speaker 1: No, how do you feel I want you to go
Speaker 1: in on because you talked about you know, the crew represents,
Speaker 1: you know, all kinds of people from America, you know,
Speaker 1: Gail King, Katy Perry, Like, what does it feel like
Speaker 1: how do you feel about flying with people you know
Speaker 1: like this, like tell me that story, how how this
Speaker 1: really resonates with you?
Speaker 2: You know, I'm so excited. They're wonderful we had the
Speaker 2: opportunity to meet, and I just like, of all Gale, right,
Speaker 2: like every time I see her, I just want to
Speaker 2: seeze her and to know that Katie, I mean, Katie's
Speaker 2: like the soundtrack to a lot of my high school
Speaker 2: and college years and hey, those are fun times. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I feel honored that science, that my accomplishments, that the
Speaker 2: story is on par with such giants in the field,
Speaker 2: and it's really this excitement to know that they're also
Speaker 2: a vehicle for storytelling because only the good stories last.
Speaker 2: And so this is going to be a widely seen mission.
Speaker 2: And even more importantly, when they see my name, they're
Speaker 2: going to see Winston Salem. When when they see my name,
Speaker 2: they're going to see research. They're going to see somebody
Speaker 2: who did not think that she could ever do this thing,
Speaker 2: but she's doing it at the highest level. And that's
Speaker 2: really my takeaway and how I feel about it. And
Speaker 2: to be able to do that and know that I
Speaker 2: have a WhatsApp group called Space Queens and you can
Speaker 2: guess who's in that what that group. It's just it's
Speaker 2: an honor and it's a joy.
Speaker 1: And finally, you talked a little bit about young people,
Speaker 1: specifically young girls who've seen themselves in you. What message
Speaker 1: do you want this flight to send a young black
Speaker 1: kid specifically who dream of careers is them?
Speaker 2: I want to hit that from two angles, because I
Speaker 2: want to speak to the kids and I want to
Speaker 2: speak to the parents. My life changed because my dad
Speaker 2: was unwilling to accept anything less than greatness from me,
Speaker 2: even when I wasn't demonstrating that. And I think that's
Speaker 2: so important, right, it doesn't matter where a child is,
Speaker 2: speak over them as if they are going to accomplish
Speaker 2: great things. We see that example in the documentary about
Speaker 2: Venus and Serena. Their father was like, wait, what, they're
Speaker 2: the best ever?
Speaker 3: Do it?
Speaker 2: So that you know, I want people to really take
Speaker 2: that out of this, out of this podcast for the
Speaker 2: people who are in those positions, right, I know what
Speaker 2: it feels like to be discouraged, to be young, to
Speaker 2: be lost, to be afraid. And what I want you
Speaker 2: to understand is that sometimes the things that you think
Speaker 2: are setbacks are really a setup. For success right. Failure
Speaker 2: is sometimes success in progress, and so stay with it,
Speaker 2: stay with your dreams, stay you know, stay out of
Speaker 2: don't put yourself down right, let's stay out of that,
Speaker 2: and to be focused only on what you want for
Speaker 2: your life, regardless of how other people feel about it.
Speaker 3: Black Tech Green Money is a production to Blavity afro
Speaker 3: Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Hire Media,
Speaker 3: and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas,
Speaker 3: with the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Sarah Ergan
Speaker 3: and Jaden McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach.
Speaker 3: Learn more about my Guess and other technives us an
Speaker 3: innovators at afrotech dot com. Video version of this episode
Speaker 3: will drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, So
Speaker 3: tap in, enjoy your Black Tech Green Money, share us
Speaker 3: to somebody go get your money.
Speaker 1: Peace and love,