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Mission Possible
Famed Female Astronauts Helping Gifted Girls Reach for the Stars By Kim Byrum Skinner
It's perhaps no coincidence that Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan, a self-described "chubby, smart tomboy," became America's first woman to walk in space.
Maverick resolve and boundless curiosity have coaxed her to the edge and back since sixth grade a light bulb year that delivered her first taste of high-IQ backlash.
"Up until that point, it was, 'Oh, oh, oh! I know that!' I was eager to have the answer," Sullivan, 53, says."It was fun quiz-show fun to answer the question. And I vividly remember the moment where I shot my hand up, 'I know that! I know that!' then realizing, in my peripheral vision, it wasn't supportive, eager smiles from other kids I was seeing around the classroom. It was a sneer. The 'Oh, isn't she so smart' kind of sneer."
Through four decades, three shuttle flights and some 532 hours in space, the former NASA astronaut and chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hasn't forgotten the childhood sting.
"I remember just sort of viscerally realizing, 'Oh, it really is not such a great thing, standing out here on the edge of this limb, taking darts and spears, visually at least, from these kids,'" says Sullivan, president and CEO of the nationally recognized Center of Science & Industry (COSI), which specializes in hands-on learning for kids.
"For some magical reason, I had enough moxie or composure or confidence that my reaction was, 'Well, OK. I don't have to throw my hand up in the air and answer out loud. I'll just answer it to myself,'" she says. "So I could play the outside game, but it didn't really wilt my interior my internal learning spirit."
A recently launched offshoot of the popular Sally Ride Science Club, the festival's mobile mission is to support young girls in their exploration of science, math and technology through hands-on learning, connecting them to female scientists, scientific content and a nationwide network of common-ground peers.