Tracy Drain

And then while I was at University of Kentucky, they encourage all of the engineering students to go get a job while you're in school, get an internship, get a co-op program, we called it.

in order to get a taste of what it was like actually having your job.

And I walked into the co-op office, and because we're in Kentucky, I expected the options to be companies that are building construction equipment or printers.

Lexmark Printers is there.

But I...

had someone come up to me and say, so what do you want to do?

I'm like, well, I want to work for NASA.

Ha ha.

But tell me what you got.

Well, it turns out they had a contact at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia and said, we can try to get you set up with a phone interview.

And I'm like, that would be great.

So they did that.

And I talked to someone on the phone for about half an hour.

At the end of the call, she said, I think you'd be great.

Can you start in May?

And it took me a second, you know, covering the phone and freaking out for a second.

And so that's how I got my first foot in the door at a NASA facility.

And once you go do an internship at a NASA facility, at least back then, it was easier to come back.

So I did a fall and then a summer and then a spring and then a summer and got to meet students from all over the country.

So after that, I went to Georgia Tech.