Hundreds of students come together to pay their
respects to Kalpana Chawla.
First, a moment of silence.
I look up to it, so I thought I should come
and give her respects to her
memory
of being a lady first Indian lady
as any.
In fact, I take it as a role model.
Students created this bulletin board in memory
of the Columbia astronauts, flowers, poems
and handmade mementos left in shovelers honor.
Her accomplishments are many.
The first woman to graduate from Punjab
Engineering College, one of 40 astronauts
accepted by NASA out of 4000 applicants
and the first Indian born woman in space.
It is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions
that began with an great adventure
and ended in the states somewhere, although it
still traveler's sense of humor was not lost.
I had to smile when I read
that among the momentos she took
in the outer space was a Utøya T-shirt
saying, quote, Utøya Arlington
Aerospace Engineering on one side
and on the other side.
It said, as a matter of fact, I am a
rocket scientist that brought a smile to my
face.
Students from India especially admire her,
a national hero there and an inspiration
to all women to break out of traditional roles.
Jovel said she always wanted to go into space,
but she never revealed that to her professors.
She kept it to herself, possibly because,
you know, it was a it seemed like an impossible
dream at the time.
Traveler dreamed the impossible dream and
work to make it reality.