Internship out of this world

By WAYNE QUESENBERRY/Staff

Jessica Allen has dreamed of working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since she was a child. She calculated she would be in her 40s before that happened.
On Jan. 14, the Wythe County resident will begin a 15-week research position at the jet propulsion lab in Pasadena, Calif., as part of the NASA Undergraduate Student Research Program. Her primary work will be programming the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope and taking data from a satellite searching for the origins of planets, stars and galaxies.
“I never thought I’d be living my dream at 21,” said the rising senior at Radford University where she is majoring in physics with a minor in astronomy. “I grew up in the Star Wars era and I’m turning my hobby into a career.”
NASA is paying Allen’s round-trip plane fare to California where she hopes to live on the campus of Caltech. It also provides her $9,000 for 40 hours of work each of the 15 weeks.
Allen is no stranger to the NASA application process. She applied last summer to seven different universities with NASA programs.
“I applied again this fall and even had a phone interview with a representative from the Jet Propulsion Lab,” Allen noted. “I didn’t get my hopes up because so many other students apply. This is the first time the internship has been offered in the spring term.”
Again completing the two-page on-line application, she scrambled to compose her resume and write an essay. Allen also had to obtain two letters of recommendation.
“I applied really fast,” she commented. “I ended up getting in somehow.”
An e-mail from the NASA program arrived Monday, Nov. 19. Several others followed.
“At first, I didn’t believe it,” she stated. “They sent five different e-mails and it took forever to read them. Then I went downstairs and screamed.”
Allen is optimistic the internship will evolve into a job with NASA. She hopes to serve as an example to other young people in Southwest Virginia.
“So many of them never leave Southwest Virginia,” Allen said. “They end up with jobs here and never leave.”
A 2005 graduate of Fort Chiswell High School, she is the daughter of Thomas and Louella Armbrister Allen, who reside in the eastern end of Wythe County. Her dad is retired from the U.S. Marine Corps and supervises the Academic Resource Center at Wytheville Community College while her mom is employed at the Virginia Workforce Center in Radford. Her brother, Jonathan Allen, is a graduate student at Radford University where his working on a master’s degree in corporate and professional communications.
A neck injury from playing tennis on the high school team sidetracked Allen for a year. She was home schooled during the time and underwent surgery for nerve damage in the back of her head.
“That’s why I can never be an astronaut,” Allen pointed out.
After taking courses at Wytheville Community College and New River Community College in Dublin, she transferred to Radford University. Allen is one of four females taking physics classes and is treasurer of the Society of Physics Students at Radford University.
Allen serves as a tutor at RU and has taught at the Crossroads Institute in Galax. Last summer, she taught several classes, including earth science, for the Upward Bound program at WCC.
“I’m too big of a volunteer,” Allen added.
This spring, she became engaged to Ryan Lineberger, assistant manager of the Wytheville Community College Bookstore. They plan to be married in 2008.
Following her NASA internship, Allen will return to RU to complete her degree. She must wait until the physics classes she needs are offered.
“This is my last full-time semester at Radford,” Allen noted. “I was not expecting this at all.”
Wayne Quesenberry can be reached at 228-6611 or .