NASA Administrator Visits Morgan State Univ.
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- NASA and Morgan State University are teaming up to produce some of the best engineers and scientists.
Monique Griego was there as one of NASA's top leaders visited with students.
Shooting into space as an astronaut or being the innovator behind high-tech project experiments are just a few of the dream jobs Morgan State University is preparing students for.
"I definitely am able to reach my dreams here," said Renee Etoty.
Helping students reach those goals is NASA and its partnership with Morgan. Wednesday, Etoty and other engineering students got a chance to meet with one of the agency's leaders, astronaut, engineer and now administrator Charlie Bolden.
"Much of the work that is being done here in the School of Engineering is directly related to things that are critical to us and the nation right now," Bolden said.
Morgan is home to one of NASA's University Research Centers. The agency helps fund projects like this that offer students valuable hands-on experience.
"Every day they're prepping us, just being in this lab and around this equipment," said Louverture Pluviose.
"It really says to them that you too can be those things. You can be the astronaut, the engineer and, at the end of the day, you can even be an administrator at NASA," said Morgan State University president Dr. David Wilson.
The students also got the opportunity to show the administrator how they're putting NASA's money to use on various projects.
"I think I knew I would see some good stuff but didn't know I would see stuff as great as I did here," said Bolden.
Bolden believes these students are key to bringing diversity to these fields.
"Makes us great candidates to compete with anyone for those jobs," said Etoty.
In 2010, NASA awarded Morgan State University with more than $28 million to fund science and engineering projects.
The university is one of the top producers of African-American engineers and scientists in the country.
