春水堂视频

Katie Grasha attended high school in Montrose, a Colorado community nestled in the pastoral Uncompahgre Valley, a place still so rural that its night sky twinkles with stars.

Grasha, who recently graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in astrophysical and planetary sciences, became a hometown ambassador for astronomy. That was not her plan.

But when Grasha was home during a semester break in 2008, she heard about a family that was leaving town because their daughter needed intensive chemotherapy. Grasha wanted to do something. She organized a stargazing event.

It was a good time to see the Pleiades star cluster. Grasha invited the girl, her family and her church. The event was not a stunning success.

鈥淚t rained the whole night,鈥� Grasha recalls. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 get to see anything.鈥�

Nonetheless, her peers remained interested. 鈥淓very time I came home, they鈥檇 say, 鈥楲et鈥檚 do it again.鈥欌�� So she did.

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 amazing or anything,鈥� Grasha contends. She鈥檇 just gather some friends and highlight celestial points of interest.

When they鈥檇 ask for another stargazing session, they鈥檇 say, 鈥淲ill you do this for us? You鈥檙e smart.鈥�

She insisted she was not smart, that this was not rocket science. She demystified the stars because, 鈥淚 want everyone to know how to do this.鈥�

When she went to CU, Grasha was something of a curiosity in her community. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e all, like, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 so cool, someone鈥檚 going off to college.鈥欌��

As she notes, some families put down roots in rural communities and stay for generations. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing wrong with that,鈥� she adds.

But for those youngsters who might want a higher education, Grasha strove to show them it was within reach.

鈥淚鈥檝e always liked math,鈥� Grasha notes. In high school, 鈥淚 absolutely fell in love with my algebra teacher and then my chemistry teacher 鈥� This stuff was so awesome.鈥�

Her interest in stars bloomed when she attended an astronomy event in nearby Delta High School. 鈥淚 only went because I could skip classes and because a cute boy asked me to go with him.鈥�

Although she took trigonometry and pre-calculus in high school, 鈥淚 never took calculus, and I felt really dumb. I thought this is why country girls don鈥檛 go to college; they鈥檙e dumb.鈥�

On the other hand, her high-school teachers cheered her on. 鈥淚 really felt like I could succeed in college, because my teachers let me believe I could succeed.鈥�

She did have doubts when she first came to CU. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥榃hoa. Maybe I can鈥檛 do this because I wasn鈥檛 brought up in prep schools.鈥欌��

Before long, however, she realized that the issue was confidence, not aptitude.

That鈥檚 one reason she enjoyed doing 鈥減ublic outreach鈥� to younger students.听 鈥淚鈥檓 only a few years away from them.鈥�

Grasha has a sister in high school, and she and others 鈥渨orry they鈥檙e not smart enough to go to a big university.鈥� She wants to encourage them.

Grasha knows that some pigeon-holes are hard to escape. Her family moved to Colorado when she was 8, and all of her siblings are artists, not scientists.

When hometown folks learned she was still studying astronomy, 鈥淧eople would be shocked that I was still doing it. 鈥� The implicit assumption was that I couldn鈥檛 do it.鈥�

But she could, did and will.

After graduating from CU, she left for graduate school at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She wants to become a professor.

She specializes in radio astronomy. 鈥淚 love what it tells us. I love being the first person experiencing something new.鈥�

Radio astronomy, as opposed to visible-light astronomy, studies the properties of galaxies. By analyzing galactic spectra, scientists learn, for instance, how hot or old a gas cloud is.

鈥淚 find that to be more fascinating than saying, 鈥極h, look this is so pretty.鈥欌��

Erica Ellingson, associate professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences, has encouraged her department to consider new ways of encouraging rural students to study the sciences at CU.

The department has just started a program to recruit students from these and other diverse backgrounds. It is called CU-STARS鈥攚hich stands for Science, Technology and Astronomy Recruits.

鈥淲e鈥檙e very small in our first year, but our first group of recruits is top-notch. I鈥檝e recently received a grant from CU Outreach for an end-of-year program to have our CU-STARS students return to their Colorado high school and present an astronomy outreach event, like Katie鈥檚,鈥� Ellingson says.

鈥淭he hope is that by seeing the familiar faces of their former classmates, and being amazed at what they can do, more students will be encouraged to follow. Rural high schools have the added feature of being under darker skies than we have here in Boulder.鈥�

Ellingson adds, 鈥淚鈥檓 very eager to keep up efforts to recruit from these other communities.鈥�

Though Grasha is now graduated, Ellingson recalled her former student fondly during the recent controversy over the pink 鈥淎llergic to Algebra鈥� T-shirt briefly sold by Forever 21.

鈥淚 thought about Katie and her unabashed pinkness and thought, 鈥楢ddicted to Astrophysics.鈥欌��