Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Kierra Shook is a 2020 graduate of Swain County High School and a sophomore at NC State University. You may remember, back in August she was interviewing for an internship with NASA. She recently got the incredible news that she was selected for the position!
The internship takes place at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas next spring from January to May.
“I am most excited to move to Houston and work on the Johnson Space Center and just be able to make connections with other NASA employees and interns,” Shook said. “Just being able to step foot on the campus and say that I am working there as an intern is a dream come true and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.”
Shook will be working on safe, high performing battery designs, which she has prior experience in.
“I will be coming up with new battery design features, ordering them, assembling them into prototype batteries, and testing their performance and safety,” she said. “The project will involve the planning and safe execution of numerous hazardous battery thermal runaway tests.”
Shook’s previous courses in engineering, robotics and coding will be useful.
“The internship also involves performance and abuse testing of new advanced cell designs and analyzing CT images of them and performing destructive physical analyses to assess design and manufacturing quality.”
This opportunity could open doors in the NASA community for Shook.
“I do have friends who have interned with NASA before, and it has led to a job. So, if I can just keep up the good work and continue to work as an intern for them for a couple years, I have no doubt it’ll lead to a job,” Shook said.