Shoot for the Moon and You’ll Land Among the Stars with Sheila Wall, NASA Aeronautical Engineer Joyfully You Life with Dr. Patrina Clark
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- Philosophy
Joining Patrina on the podcast today is her good friend, NASA Aerospace Engineer, Sheila Wall. Among her many accomplishments, Sheila was one of the structural analysts on The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument, and she was also the lead structural analyst for the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. Sheila is the lead structural analyst for the L’Ralph instrument for the Lucy mission which will launch this year. Today, she shares her thoughts around STEM and a number of other interesting topics with Patrina and her listeners.
Their conversation begins by reviewing how these two great friends met, and then Sheila provides a fascinating account of her journey from childhood to becoming an Aerospace engineer and joining NASA. Along the way, she and Patrina discuss the similarities and differences in their upbringing, Sheila’s enviable demeanor, a typical day for her at NASA, and the inspiration that she received and now offers to others in her role. Sheila also offers some ideas for encouraging more children of color to pursue a STEM career and the challenges involved in this, while highlighting the importance of a positive attitude towards challenges and being champions of one another. The interview concludes with Sheila sharing what brings her joy these days, and her sage advice for aspiring scientists. Educational and inspirational, Sheila’s words here today cement her position as a role model for others in determining their goals in life and persevering regardless of any obstacles that may arise.
Episode Highlights:
Sheila and Patrina’s friendship
Sheila’s journey to becoming an Aerospace Engineer for NASA
The similarities and differences in their journeys
A typical day for Sheila at NASA
Their shared admiration of Dr. Mae Jemison
Sheila’s ideas for guiding more children of color into STEM occupations
Sheila’s determination toward challenges and achievement
The importance of being champions of one another
What brings joy to Sheila these days
Sheila and Patrina’s nieces
Sheila’s advice to young, aspiring scientists
Quotes:
“There are not a lot of women of color in this aeronautical engineering space, science, technical engineering, math space.”
“If they can do it, I think I can do it too.”
“If you do not make this degree, in my mind, you will be poor the rest of your life. And that could not happen.”
“I am so impressed with your, like, there is no plan B, this is what we're doing, because I've got goals, I have things that I want and need to accomplish. And this seems like a sure path, so we're going to make it happen.”
“You do carry yourself with an incredible air of confidence. There's no arrogance, there's just a really nice self-assuredness that I've always really liked about you.”
“Everything just worked out really, just seamless, just beautiful. I love my branch - that's the group of people that I work with - I love my boss, which I call my branch head. I'm still in the same branch.”
“In Wright-Patterson, like, I actually had someone that was assigned to train me and they refused.”
“I'm able to tell them if the design is sufficient or not…I create mathematical models so that I can assess the design before it's built.”
“My results have imagined these tests so well where a couple of times I'm shocked myself.”
“It's just excitement over just the years of work and you know, many late nights and all that.”
“No design is perfect the first time.”
“I try to just live my life and make myself present.”
“If I can do it then you can do it too.”
“I liked your point early about moving outside of your bubble and not limiting yourself to your bubble or your community.”
“I have now this expanded horizon and I get to actually choose what my sphere of reality contains based on what I want to decide it contains, not what somebody else imposes on me
Joining Patrina on the podcast today is her good friend, NASA Aerospace Engineer, Sheila Wall. Among her many accomplishments, Sheila was one of the structural analysts on The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument, and she was also the lead structural analyst for the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. Sheila is the lead structural analyst for the L’Ralph instrument for the Lucy mission which will launch this year. Today, she shares her thoughts around STEM and a number of other interesting topics with Patrina and her listeners.
Their conversation begins by reviewing how these two great friends met, and then Sheila provides a fascinating account of her journey from childhood to becoming an Aerospace engineer and joining NASA. Along the way, she and Patrina discuss the similarities and differences in their upbringing, Sheila’s enviable demeanor, a typical day for her at NASA, and the inspiration that she received and now offers to others in her role. Sheila also offers some ideas for encouraging more children of color to pursue a STEM career and the challenges involved in this, while highlighting the importance of a positive attitude towards challenges and being champions of one another. The interview concludes with Sheila sharing what brings her joy these days, and her sage advice for aspiring scientists. Educational and inspirational, Sheila’s words here today cement her position as a role model for others in determining their goals in life and persevering regardless of any obstacles that may arise.
Episode Highlights:
Sheila and Patrina’s friendship
Sheila’s journey to becoming an Aerospace Engineer for NASA
The similarities and differences in their journeys
A typical day for Sheila at NASA
Their shared admiration of Dr. Mae Jemison
Sheila’s ideas for guiding more children of color into STEM occupations
Sheila’s determination toward challenges and achievement
The importance of being champions of one another
What brings joy to Sheila these days
Sheila and Patrina’s nieces
Sheila’s advice to young, aspiring scientists
Quotes:
“There are not a lot of women of color in this aeronautical engineering space, science, technical engineering, math space.”
“If they can do it, I think I can do it too.”
“If you do not make this degree, in my mind, you will be poor the rest of your life. And that could not happen.”
“I am so impressed with your, like, there is no plan B, this is what we're doing, because I've got goals, I have things that I want and need to accomplish. And this seems like a sure path, so we're going to make it happen.”
“You do carry yourself with an incredible air of confidence. There's no arrogance, there's just a really nice self-assuredness that I've always really liked about you.”
“Everything just worked out really, just seamless, just beautiful. I love my branch - that's the group of people that I work with - I love my boss, which I call my branch head. I'm still in the same branch.”
“In Wright-Patterson, like, I actually had someone that was assigned to train me and they refused.”
“I'm able to tell them if the design is sufficient or not…I create mathematical models so that I can assess the design before it's built.”
“My results have imagined these tests so well where a couple of times I'm shocked myself.”
“It's just excitement over just the years of work and you know, many late nights and all that.”
“No design is perfect the first time.”
“I try to just live my life and make myself present.”
“If I can do it then you can do it too.”
“I liked your point early about moving outside of your bubble and not limiting yourself to your bubble or your community.”
“I have now this expanded horizon and I get to actually choose what my sphere of reality contains based on what I want to decide it contains, not what somebody else imposes on me