The sky is not the limit, at this year’s Castro Professorship
On Oct. 8, Jose Hernandez, the former astronaut and former congressional candidate, packed the Tivoli Turnhalle as MSU Denver’s Richard T. and Virginia M. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship guest lecturer.
According to Adriana Nieto, the chair of the school’s Chicana/o Studies department, the Castro Professorship has run at MSU Denver since 1997
170 concurrent enrollment high school students were in attendance. The Turnhalle, with a capacity of 500, was packed and many stood because there wasn’t enough seating. There were also tens of people watching from the second floor of the Turnhalle.
Statistics gathered by MSU Denver’s University Communications and Marketing Team (UCM) show that roughly an additional 70 people attended Hernandez’s guest lecture virtually via livestreaming.
Nieto said the ripple effect of the visit was, in a word, “inspiration.”
Leah Tankersly, an Aviation and Aerospace Science student studying to be an Air Traffic Controller, spoke to The Metropolitan regarding the event. Tankersly is also a SpaceTech Scholar and a peer mentor for the SpaceTech Scholars program. She was involved in advertising and peer recruitment for the event.
In terms of impact, Tankersly said “I suffer from pretty big imposter syndrome… Something that was really impactful about his visit today is the fact that he came from such a humble background as well as struggled continuously to achieve his goals.”
Hernandez was rejected from astronaut candidacy 11 times before succeeding on his twelfth application.
Tankersly said that “at today’s meet and greet, I asked him how he combatted (imposter syndrome) and his big advice was to ‘take a step back and recount all of the different achievements and accomplishments that you’ve gotten so far’.”
According to Tankersly, her and her peers were grateful and felt inspired and motivated by Hernandez’s visit.
Briseidy Chavira, who goes by “Bri” on campus, is studying at MSU Denver to become a pilot. Her degree will be in Aviation and Aerospace Science with a concentration in Professional Flight Officer.
Chavira was one of two students who prefaced the astronaut’s remarks with their own and introduced him on stage.
Chavira said that “I felt honored to be chosen to speak about the astronaut and my own story — I could relate to the fact that he had come from an agricultural background. I came from a very similar background, I understand the struggle… To be able to see someone who looks like me and who has a similar background as me was inspiring to me. I can do it because I know someone else has done it before me.”
The value of this event, in the eyes of students, staff, and faculty alike, was hope, inspiration, and motivation.
“My little speech can make an impact, his bigger speech can make such a bigger impact,” Chavira said.
During the lecture, Hernandez spoke of his trajectory- how he came to dream of being an astronaut and the critical moments that paved his road to the stars. He told those in attendance about when he watched the final Apollo mission on his family’s black and white TV.
Hernandez recounted when he first told his dad, that night, his dream of being an astronaut, and that his dad “must’ve saw the determination of a ten-year-old boy.”
“First thing he does, is, he validates the dream. He empowers me to believe I can do it. ‘Mijo I think you can do it’.” Hernandez said. “Wow, my dad thinks I can be an astronaut, I’m going to be one.”
“Persevere. You can’t give up on yourselves.” he said. “I’m here to tell you that NASA rejected me not 3, not 4 times, but eleven times.”
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