Writer / Lauren Casey Bemis
For high school students, summer break can be a time to earn a little extra money, travel with family, spend time with friends and even take part in extracurricular activities.
But for Center Grove junior Brody Webb, time off school meant an opportunity to launch into his passions and explore a world beyond our own with an internship for NASA.
“I was unsure if I would get this internship. The acceptance rate was pretty low from past years,” says Webb. “But I applied anyway, and after reading their mission statement, I realized that I could be the type of student they are looking for.”
The prestigious NASA STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) High School Summer Internship program is an opportunity for motivated high school students with an interest in pursuing STEM careers to gain scientific knowledge through hands-on experiences and authentic NASA research.
Webb was selected, and through this online summer internship opportunity, he worked with a team of about six members to work on astronomical research. His team researched the age and distance to clusters in space that had not been observed since the 1940s. The team did the internship completely virtually, with Webb working from Indiana.
“We just did an astronomical process called photometry, and that allowed us to take in information about the star’s light and really understand what cluster we were looking at and how old it was and how far away it is,” says Webb.
For most high school students going into their junior year, a coveted internship with NASA would be enough to keep a person busy. But not Webb. In addition to this internship, he also arranged a research project for himself with a professor and mentor at Butler University.
“I just started emailing professors to learn about the research they are working on, and that’s what landed my research at Butler University,” says Webb. “I worked with a mentor, Dr. Aarran Shaw, who is an astrophysics professor. When I reached out, I just wanted to get an early start on understanding the field and seeing if I actually want to do it someday.”
Webb says Shaw allowed him to work on small coding projects about independent polars, which he describes simply as high-energy, binary systems, like two astronomical objects circling around each other. Early in the summer, Webb also led a program called “Physics in Action” at a local library with a small group of interested, young students.
“I offered an opportunity for students to just do physics experiments. They learned physics isn’t just boring math or really difficult math; things can be very conceptual and applicable to everything around us.”
Webb had the kids take surveys after the program, and is proud that they noted feeling more confident and interested in learning more about physics in the future.
“I feel like it was meaningful and made a deep impact on those kids,” says Webb, who is now working with community partners to expand this type of programming to students with language barriers in the community.
He balances all of this with being a dance captain on Center Grove’s varsity show choir, which allows him to explore his more creative aspirations and connect with friends.
Webb credits opportunities for challenging coursework available within Center Grove Schools, like AP Physics, Calculus and Science National Honor Society, for helping pique his curiosity. He encourages families in the community and other young students to not be afraid to look for unique opportunities to follow your passions.
“We live in a resourced area by Indiana standards, but nationally, it’s considered an under-resourced area for STEM. So I encourage other kids to look for programs, even if they’re virtual, that they can do,” says Webb. “As a sophomore, really none of my friends were on Zoom calls with professors, but I found it really cool. So don’t be afraid to go outside of the norm because that’s what’s going to build those connections for later on.”
