News media are invited to attend the Hispanic College Institute, a Virginia Latino Higher Education Network event hosted by Virginia Tech on Friday, July 17, when NASA speakers will engage 125 high school student participants and 50 college student volunteers with talks and hands-on activities.

Guest speakers from NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, are David Bowles, director of Langley, and Denisse Aranda, an aerospace engineer. Bowles will address the event virtually from NASA Langley, while Aranda will be there in person. The event takes place at Virginia Tech’s Moss Center and in Pamplin Hall in Blacksburg, Virginia.

At the Moss Center, Bowles is the keynote speaker from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m. Aranda will talk about what it takes to work for NASA and student internships and opportunities from 10:45 a.m. to noon, when the group will break for lunch.

Later, three concurrent hands-on activities will take place in classrooms in Pamplin Hall from 1 to 1:45, 2 to 2:45 and 3 to 3:45 p.m. NASA educators will facilitate to Rockets 2 Racecars activities – Train like an Astronaut, and Drag Race to Mars Engineering Design Challenge. The Virginia Museum of Transportation will present History of Transportation.

Media interested in attending should contact Alison C. Matthiessen at Virginia Tech at (540) 231-5682 or amatthiessen@vt.edu<mailto:amatthiessen@vt.edu>

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Michael Finneran
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, Virginia
(757) 864-6110
michael.p.finneran@nasa.gov