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 Marietta Monitor

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 The Lawton Constitution
Lawton girl will reach
May
20
for stars at NASA camp
BY GARY REDDIN
STAFF WRITER
2018 GREDDIN@SWOKNEWS.COM
Ramona Cox often
Page spends nighttime car
D001 rides looking up at the
sky.
Clip “I’m that person that is
resized trying to figure out where
51% I am based on the stars at
night,” Cox said.
Cox is a sophmore at
the EPIC Charter School,
and a senior Girl Scout in
Troop 499. At the age of
13, Cox already has col-
lege planned out. Bright,
personable and eager to
learn, Cox seeks out any
opportunity to better her-
self. This desire for en-
richment led her to apply
to NASA’s Reaching for
the Stars program for
Girl Scouts, after a
lengthy interview
process, Cox recieved an
email letting her know
that she had been accept-
ed into the program.
The program, launched
in 2017, provides Girl
Scouts with the opportu-
nity to spend a week at
NASA’s Goddard Space
Flight Center in Green-
belt, Maryland. The Girl
Scouts of Western Okla-
homa was one of 10 Girl
Scouts’ councils selected
to participate in the
NASA program.
Each council will send
two scouts from 9th
through 12th grade, an
amateur astronomer
from the Night Sky Net-
work and one staff mem-
ber or volunteer. The
scouts were selected
based off of their knowl-
edge of training require-
ments and their leader-
ship skills, among other
qualities.
“The interview wasn’t
anything too difficult,”
Cox said. “They asked us
questions about why we
thought we should get to
go. I tried to mention a lot
of the STEM related
things I do in my free
time to show them that I
have a lot of experience
with those things.”
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
COURTESY PHOTO
Ramona Cox holds up the
activity booklet she created as
part of her silver award from
Girl Scouts. Cox will travel to
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center in June as part of a spe-
cial program designed to get
girls into STEM fields.
Cox explained that she
spend the majority of her
summers at STEM resi-
dency camps learning
about cell multiplication
and forensics, skills that
went a long way in con-
vincing the board to
choose her for the pro-
gram.
Cox’s mother,
Lakawthra Cox, has al-
ways seen the spark of
genius in her daughter.
“Definitely with sci-
ence. She’s 2 years ahead
in school and has an A+ in
Pre-AP Science. We lived
out in Indiahoma, out in
the country, where you
could actually see the
stars and the constella-
tions. I think, perhaps,
she had an early start be-
cause of that. Living out
there you kind of experi-
ence life differently.
There is no light, there’s
nothing out there but the
stars. We lived on ten
acres and you could ride
around at night, look up at
the stars and see every-
thing. I think that’s kind
of where that began for
her.”
Cox agrees with her
mother that her love of
space began early, and
was influenced by living
in the country under the
blanket of stars. She is ex-
cited about the opportuni-
ty to join the program,
and is looking forward to
indulging her love of
space.
“I’m going mostly for
the experience,” Cox
said. “I think it’s going to
be a lot of fun going out to
NASA to see what they
are doing out there. I
can’t keep up with every-
thing they do, so I think it
will be really cool to go
out there and experience
it myself.”
One of the intended
benefits of the program is
to prepare the scout at-
tending to return to their
troops and found an as-
tronomy club. In fact, one
of the requirements for
selection was forming a
plan to get the club found-
ed and running. It’s a big
task, but Cox believes she
is up to the challenge.
“I’m looking forward to
it,” Cox said.
While she is at the God-
dard Center, Cox will par-
ticipate in hands-on activ-
ities, robotic telescope
observations, lab tours,
outdoor experiences and
presentations by NASA
scientists.The program is
designed to prepare the
girls with everything
they need to get their as-
tronomy clubs off the
ground. Additionally, the
girls will have the oppor-
tunity to earn special
Space Science badges.
The program runs June
24-29, and Cox had a few
words of encouragement
for any other girl that
might find themselves in-
terested in pursuing simi-
lar programs in the
STEM field.
“Try it, and definitely
don’t knock it before you
try it, because I know a
lot of people think its bor-
ing but I say try it first
before you decide you
hate it, because it is a lot
of fun.”