·         Pedro Jose Salazar Garcia has been involved in at least five NASA projects in recent years

·         Salazar Garcia is using his DMACC Boone Campus connections, including with Dr. Nancy Woods, to access the Great American Dream

·         Salazar Garcia’s long-time goal is to become a Project Manager at one of NASA’s centers

Former DMACC Urban Campus and DMACC Boone Campus student Pedro Jose Salazar Garcia of Des Moines is working hard to achieve a lifetime goal of working for NASA.

The 2015 Des Moines East High School graduate started his postsecondary education at the DMACC Urban Campus where he first learned English.  He transferred to the Boone Campus to complete his pre-engineering Associate’s degree.  That’s where he started fine-tuning his resume for a career with NASA.

“Pedro has been extensively involved in everything NASA,” said DMACC Boone Campus Physics and Math Professor Dr. Nancy Woods. “He completed three NASA ‘volunteer’ opportunities for community college students while at the Boone Campus.”

During the fall 2019 semester, Salazar Garcia was chosen to work for 12-weeks at the NASA Lucy Student Pipeline Accelerator and Competency Enabler (L’SPACE) Virtual Mission Concept Academy.

The virtual program was designed around NASA’s upcoming 2021 Lucy mission to explore Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids for the first time.

Afterwards, Salazar Garcia completed L’SPACE’s NASA Proposal Writing and Evaluation Experience Academy.

He also completed the NASA Community Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program. To date, Salazar Garcia is the first DMACC student to complete all of the NASA programs open to undergraduate STEM students interested in pursuing careers with NASA or other space organizations.

In addition, Salazar Garcia also completed not one, but two NASA paid internships at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, CA.

Salazar Garcia is now a junior at Iowa State University on his way to completing his Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering.  He said he wants to then pursue a Ph.D. in Engineering.

“My future goals include becoming an engineer, then a project manager at one of NASA’s centers, as well as then creating a non-profit business that will help minority students create meaningful connections with professionals and expand their opportunities after high school,” Salazar Garcia said. “Through my career and life experiences, I want to help motivate more Latinos to pursue degrees in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) fields, knowing that their dreams really can come true.” 

Salazar Garcia was one of DMACC’s 2019 All Iowa Academic Team members.  He also earned the prestigious 2020-2021 Iowa Space Grant Consortium’s Merit Transfer Scholarship and recently earned the national 2020-2021 Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholarship.

“Pedro believes that DMACC Boone Campus was the tool that provided him access to the Great American Dream,” Woods said.  “It’s been a privilege to be able to mentor Pedro along his path.  I could not be more proud of this young man.”

The DMACC Boone Campus NASA connection continues.  Noah Gleason of Granger, a Boone Campus pre-engineering student, was recently admitted to the next round of NASA’s NCAS program.  In December 2020 and January 2021, Gleason will complete a five-week online program where he is required to complete material, quizzes and a final project.  Gleason is also working on completing applications to several prestigious Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) projects.

DMACC Boone Campus Provost Dr. Drew Nelson highlighted the accomplishments of both Salazar Garcia and Gleason during a recent DMACC Board of Directors meeting.

Pedro Salazar Garcia

Noah Gleason