Hi Reader,

There have been a few times in my life where I have felt like I didn’t belong in engineering. Coming from another country was definitely not easy but had given me a diverse perspective in everything I do. This month, I have been sharing part of my story as well as brought guests to talk about their experiences as Hispanics in STEM.

All the stories have been amazing and there have been so many lessons that have been hard to process and share more with you. I have been busy doing planning behind the scenes and getting some help so I can do more of what I love which is creating the podcast and learning more about the guests.

This week’s interview was one that I really enjoyed. Joan is a champion in STEM and it was wonderful to talk to her about so many great topics. This was the first time we had connected beyond seeing each other on social media and it felt very natural. Her mission is very similar to mine and I had a great time talking to her. I really hope you have enjoyed the conversations from this month!

Here are some lessons from the episode with Joan:

• Her Work Experience in the Aviation Industry―And How It Helps Her at NASA
• How NASA Socials Allowed Her to Network With and Learn From NASA Engineers
• How She Managed to Get Her Job at NASA After 13 Failed Attempts
• What She Did After Each Rejection That Allowed Her to Succeed Later on
• Pandemic-Related Challenges She Faced Right After Joining NASA
• Joan's Past and Current Missions at NASA
• One of Her Life Principles: “Network to get work”
• Do You Need to Be a Rocket Scientist to Work at NASA?
• Roles Available at NASA and its Subcontractors You Didn’t Know You Could Get
• How She Uses Her Chemical Engineering Background at NASA
• Your Degree Doesn’t Define You. You Willingness to Learn Does.
• How You Can Switch Career Paths if You Want to―Regardless of Your Degree
• Why Do Countries Spend Billions of Dollars to Send Things into Space?
• The Unnoticed Benefits Society Gets From the Space Sector
• Her All-Time Favorite Moments and Tasks as a NASA Engineer
• Her Struggles as a Hispanic Woman Engineer
• Why She Started Her Highly Successful Instagram Page With 40k+ Followers
• Her Top Two Tips on How to Pursue a Career in STEM―And Succeed

Make sure you check out the episode with her on your favorite podcast app or YouTube and subscribe to the show to get new updates every week. Here are the podcasts I have released for Hispanic Heritage month if you have not had a chance to listen to them.

• ​055 // Becoming a NASA Engineer with Joan Melendez Misner​
• ​054 // Launching Hispanics Towards Success with Andrea Martin​
• ​053 // Creating a Community for Hispanics in STEM with Girls in Civil​
• ​052 // Hispanic Heritage Month and What it Means to be a Latino in STEM​

I hope you are finding a lot of value in these episodes!

Let's Continue Engineering our Future

Luis