Their targets were drawn for stratospheric dimensions, out of this world. The story of Diana Trujillo Pomerantz could well be written in a bestseller or filmed in a big Hollywood project.
I read young and only with $ 300
The Colombian arrived in the United States when she was 17 years old. In his bag is loaded many illusions and only $ 300.
He had to work cleaning houses and in a bakery, but always with the goal of one day belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), something he achieved with great effort, perseverance and without fear.
Oh family! The best. Party bombs! “My mom made me a collage last night, too.” The one behind in my photo. #LatinxInSpace and family as always. https://t.co/b5okFCMkwk pic.twitter.com/CvDkt2SI3X
– Diana Trujillo (@FromCaliToMars) July 29, 2020
Trujillo Pomerantz, a native of Cali, is now in her 40s and one of the brightest members of the NASA team of scientists who charted the mission to Mars 2020.
Today she is one of the most recognized women in the organization, but her life was not always easy. He had to fight for the position he now holds.
She worked as a domestic worker
In her early years in the land of bars and stars she combined her work as a domestic worker, while studying space science at Community College in Miami Dade, and then went to the University of Florida, where she earned a scholarship for the degree in Aerospace Mechanics and Biomedical.
One of her professors encouraged and encouraged her to do an internship at NASA, where she became the first Latin migrant to collaborate on this program in 2007.
“I came alone, I didn’t know English, I had about $ 300 in my pocket. I didn’t know how much I was going to get, I didn’t know anyone,” he said in an interview with EFE, recording his arrival in the States. Units.
“My dream of working for NASA without knowing English sounded very ridiculous and out of place, but I kept it and now I’m working on my second mission,” shares the Colombian, who has a key place in the design of the Curiosity program, whose goal aims to discover traces of life on Mars.
@NASAPersevere @NASA_es I’m in love with your name, Perseverance. I hope to see you on Mars soon! pic.twitter.com/gei3c3Sb4U
– Diana Trujillo (@FromCaliToMars) March 5, 2020
Now, he has created the non-profit organization Brooke Owens Fellowship, in order to encourage women, Latinos and Afro-descendants to follow in his footsteps. “I didn’t see many Latin women we could admire and say we wanted to be like them. If I can, so can you, ”he says.
In the tuning stage of the Mars Perseverance Rover vehicle, Trujillo was designed in front of the surface phase of the robotic arm and the instruments of the apparatus.
Once the spacecraft deployed, along with the Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral base, the South American leads the surface examination operations program.
Based on perseverance, Diana Trujillo is a convincing proof that goals can be met, no matter how ambitious they may be.