West Orange Teen Earns Chance To Attend Space Academy

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children recently helped six, high-achieving teenagers – including a West Orange resident – to experience the “summer vacation of their dreams.”

The nonprofit provided Lucas Miranda, a junior at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, and five other youth with scholarships to attend the Advanced Space Academy at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Alabama.

The six students are all entering their high school sophomore and junior years at Archdiocese of Newark Catholic schools in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties.

This year’s Space Academy scholarship winners were chosen after submitting their grades, a teacher recommendation and an essay describing why they would benefit from attending the camp. They also had to write a second essay explaining how math and science spark their creativity.

The Space Academy attendees enjoyed a week of high-level educational and team-building activities, which included constructing a rocket, flying jet aircraft simulators and completing an extended-duration Mars mission simulation. They also got to experience a moonwalk using the 1/6th gravity chair and a spacecraft tumble in the multi-axis trainer.

According to the archdiocese, the Space Academy scholarships are funded entirely by donors Mark and Kathy Walchak, whose generosity has sent more than 150 teenagers to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center since 1996. Many of these teens went on to pursue careers in STEM fields, including two who joined NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

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