Ivanna Hernandez

deGrasse Tyson. It was full of stories and elements such as "the ship of the imagination" that made the "science" topic just amazing in Ivanna's eyes. The program was increasing little by little her fascination and interest in space and the universe. Ivanna has been curious, and Cosmos fed that curiosity with questions about the world that was opening before her eyes with science, it could explain many of her doubts, and at the same time left her many more.

At the age of 11, she won the first place in the science fair of her school. The project gave a tour of different celestial bodies through an experience with virtual reality and holograms, combining her passion for space with new technologies. Having won that contest made her realize that each of the efforts that she made had its reward. This first experience made her search for more activities in STEAM. She joined the foundation Apolo and she became an active member in which she participated in scientific dissemination talks and also began to participate in contest like the “Train like a Martian Challenge” from The Mars Generation.

In this event, she met wonderful people, including Julie Sage and Isabel Escobar from Ecuador who has similar interests as her. She still has contact through social networks with them where they share information about contests and opportunities at STEAM. Cubes In Space also had a mission patch design competition, so she applied her knowledge in digital drawing and won the second place in the 2017 version of the contest, Ivanna says "It was very exciting to see that the cake of the ceremony closing of the event had my design as a decoration, that was a surprise for me".

That same year she attended to the Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, where she had a week of immersion set on the international space station, living the experience of training that real astronauts have to pass through. She learned about the history of space science and teamwork that is involved in successfully carrying out space missions.

In the school holidays at the end of the year 2017, she took several courses with the University of Cundinamarca, which are:

• Edition: learned to improve the structure and writing of documents. It also helped her in her writing hobby by showing her tools that make writing easier and more enjoyable.

• Create your APP: She learned about the programming language for the design of mobile applications. Her project was the creation of an application that calculated the body mass index and another that taught about elementary particles (standard model of Physics)

• Create your own Youtube Channel: Learned to write scripts, use a camera correctly and edit videos by using Adobe Premiere Pro.

• Design for non-designers: She learned to work with Adobe Photoshop, creating her own designs of interior spaces.

• Digital Marketing: She learned about the different strategies offered by social networks to share information easily thanks to new technologies that allow the exchange of files, such as videos, graphics, and advertising.It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

At the beginning of 2018, she represented her school in the International Particle Physic Outreach Group (IPPOG) competition Paticles4U 2018. Her participation consisted of a video showing how the fog camera works, also known as Wilson's camera, which is a device that is used to detect ionizing radiation particles where you can see different types of traces that come from cosmic particles. She received an honorable mention for her participation.

In 2018 Ivanna participated in the Paradigm challenge competition presenting a video with her little sister and cousin explaining the benefits for the body of physical exercise. Their entry was among the 25 most voted by the public.

In the summer of 2018, she attended to a scholarship of the Tuskegee Airmen Aviation and STEM Training Program (TAAST) in Atlanta, GA. This was the fourth year of the TAAST program, there were 28 students accepted from various schools in Atlanta, with Ivanna Hernandez being the first international student in the history of that program to be accepted.

In her application form for the TAAST program Ivanna wrote an essay explaining why she wants to be a part of the aviation and aerospace industry. She also included her most recent grades from school and described all of the extracurricular activities that she has participated in within the aviation, aerospace, and STEM communities. It is a credit to all her hard work that she was selected by the committee to participate in the TAAST program.

guidance flights with flight instructors certified by the FAA; had interaction with professionals in the aviation industry; and excursions to aviation museums, military bases and air traffic control centers.

Ivanna had the opportunity to visit the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport where she was able to explore the aircraft hangar, learn and discover the various aspects of aviation and the aerospace industry in the aviation museum of DELTA airlines. She also was able to learn about the work done by the air traffic controllers, the airline dispatchers, pilots, the maintenance technicians, the aeronautical engineer or the aviation administration and also all of her queries and questions asked were answered by the officials who work in the different departments.

Ivanna was also able to visit the Coca-Cola Space Science Center at Columbus State University where she trained with her team in a simulated flight and space mission to Mars. The TAAST program's schedule of activities also included a visit to a radio station in the city of Columbus where she was interviewed and she talked about her experience as an international student of the TAAST program.

On the day of the graduation ceremony, students who showed good performance and leadership in STEM, including Ivanna, were granted another scholarship to attend the National Flight Academy for a summer deployment.

intact airplanes some of which were hung from special beams on the roof of the building that allows the museum to accommodate about 150 vehicles in a relatively small space. The visit to the museum ended with a tour of scale models of several aircraft carriers in the history of the United States Navy and the section on the history of US space exploration.

At age 15, she is the representative of her class before the student council of the school, this has helped her to improve her assertive communication with her classmates, where she arbitrates when there are differences between classmates. She has also had to apply negotiation strategies when it has been necessary to bring before the teachers a concerted suggestion from among all the students. She is also part of his school's honor roll for her excellent grades, commitment, and leadership.

Ivanna has appeared in several article in newspapers and TV in their city where they highlight their motivation and work in STEM. Ivanna is aware that her quest to have wings to fly very high in the sky is not an easy task and that to reach her goals it is not enough to think big, but she must also act big.