The Cosmic Effect

Jonathan Sunny Laxmi

Leaders without ideas are impotent. Ideas without people are impossible. To lead effectively, one must
understand people, and more importantly, have and express good ideas.
Last summer, I worked with the Public Affairs ffice at !A"A#s $ohnson "pace %enter and led the
creation of an innovative video pro&ect. ne of !A"A#s primary goals is garnering public support in order
to increase funding for scientific endeavors and spread public awareness about the universe. 'efore I
&oined the team, !A"A funded its videos by using expensive media crews. I intended to do something
never before done by interns at !A"A(produce an in)house video at a professional level. I took on the
task to direct, shoot, act in and select actors, narrate, and edit an intern recruitment video in a cooperative
pro&ect with the ffice of Procurement, the %hief *inancial fficer, and other interns within several
directorates.
Assembling information from a team of minds from diverse divisions(mathematics, business,
engineering, law and communications(is no easy task. To prepare, I researched and learned how to use
available e+uipment, more about !A"A#s pro&ects, and who the target audience was. To gain familiarity
with the ,- camera, I volunteered to head the production of, shoot, interview in, and edit footage for an
academic competition ./, 0, 12 in which selected universities designed inflatable lofts which will serve
astronaut missions to 3ars and beyond. I then spoke to engineers and scientists about pro&ect designs and
physics concepts and wrote articles .$uly 4 August 05// Issues2, fact sheets regarding experiments on the
International "pace "tation and onsite, and press releases about ongoing initiatives to understand the
science behind the operations. To understand the public#s needs, I then worked with the 6ducation ffice
to gauge and then create informative materials by designing pamphlets, which creatively conveyed uni+ue
programs information for students, educators, and the public. 'y +uantitatively and +ualitatively
analy7ing the social media presence of !A"A#s programs, I also earned a better sense of the reach and
spectrum of !A"A#s public outreach initiatives. 8ltimately, my design was selected as the one to be used
for future informative materials which will be distributed by the 6ducation ffice regarding scientific
programs.
*inally, to grasp the organi7ation#s breadth and observe operations in person, I volunteered in the
newsroom during important mission days, escorted media groups and explored many facilities before,
during and after the final shuttle mission. 3y experiences included speaking to over twenty astronauts,
interacting with !eil de9rasse Tyson, discussing scientific ideas with other prominent members of the
scientific community ranging from engineers to planetary scientists to particle physicists .including team
members working on the Alpha 3agnetic "pectrometer under -r. "am Ting2, escorting media crews from
over ten ma&or networks and engaging with the public regarding their views on scientific endeavors and
the space program. -uring this period, I collected information from all "huttle *light %ontrol :oom
console positions; group leads for the Public Affairs ffice to be used for media reference material and so
understood the groups# different functions. *inally, I was given the responsibility to draft the proposal for
the Post)*light Activities %alendar budget for the "T")/1< crew, explaining why their mission was so
important, which directly and successfully contributed to the budget#s approval. I learned not only about
!A"A as an organi7ation, but also about the power of independent effort and leadership through the
combination of cooperative communication and good ideas.
3y resulting efforts pioneered a new process for !A"A, as I had set a new standard for future employees
to follow(I left a tutorial explaining my process, and used all of my experience to direct, edit, narrate
and act in, and create an epic video which will be used in the years to come to inspire the public and other
students of science like me to interact and indulge more in the scientific community.