Naperville Student Soars at Space Camp

Veronica Picchi didn’t want last week to come to a close.

 Ending the week meant returning to Naperville and high school. Both were not nearly as exciting or stimulating as the week she spent at Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala.

Every morning she went to work solving problems, working as a team member and honing her leadership skills. Although she was busy from sunup to sundown she enjoyed the real-world experience.

Picchi, 17, a senior at , was one of 238 students from 26 countries and 27 states and territories chosen to attend the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy this year. 

As a leading technology company, Honeywell is committed to improving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education around the world, according to a Honeywell official. The Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy (HLCA) is one of a series of programs it has designed to inspire the next generation of innovators and scientists.

Picchi said she was a bit nervous about attending the space camp. She wasn’t sure if she would stack up to the other students. Quickly, she realized she was more than up to the challenge, even winning an award recognizing her for critical thinking skills.

“It was probably one of the best experiences of my life,” Picchi said during an interview in her family’s home.

The experience only served to reinforce her goal of attending the University of Illinois at Chicago and studying biologic sciences in the fall.

She knew she could handle the math that would be expected at the program, but she had little experience with engineering, which seemed a bit daunting.

“I learned if I put my mind to it, I can do what I want,” she said.

Inspiring students to believe they can do great things is one reason the program was created.

Honeywell’s goal is to inspire students to not only consider technical careers but to inspire them into becoming the next generation of leaders, said Jill Foster, a specialist with Honeywell Hometown Solutions.

“It’s rewarding to see some of our students go from being shy to becoming outspoken through their curiosity to learn of their teammates culture and seeing how other students go from being afraid of heights to becoming motivated to move across the high ropes course challenge by encouragement from their teammates,” Foster said in an e-mail.

“All the students, at some point throughout the program, seem to hone in and grasp that they can accomplish anything through teamwork and dedication. I can confidently say that they all leave the HLCA inspired that they can leverage their experience to teach and lead others!”

Picchi said she learned she was a good communicator with strong critical thinking skills and that she could be a strong team leader.

Her 13-member team included students from Germany, Romania, Belgium, Spain, India and the United States.  She has been invited to Romania for the summer and has in turn invited one of the German students to visit Naperville, she said.

“It was fascinating meeting them because we were there for one reason because we are leaders who love science,” she said.

The program was created in partnership with the United States Space & Rocket Center in 2010, and was formed to replace what was known as the Honeywell’s Presidential Classroom Program, Foster said.

The program is designed to encourage the students to pursue math and science through their secondary education, Foster said.  The program’s unique curriculum challenges students in five key areas: purposeful leadership; effective communication; integrated planning; team trust and cohesion; and critical thinking.

The students also engage in interactive challenges such as designing, building and testing their own rockets, bridge structures and DNA extraction experiments. They participate in time-critical physical challenges as part of a high and low ropes course, simulating space shuttle missions, and jet fighter pilot training.    

Over the course of the week, Picchi said her team became very close because the members enjoyed working together and had the same determination.

Picchi said for her some of the more interesting research projects involved a DNA extraction and analyzing common diseases. Another simulation involved the students building a heat shield, similar to what is found on the space shuttle. The goal was to have the shield withstand the heat of a blowtorch for as long as possible. 

The purpose of the simulations was to put the students in real-life situations, she said. Along with the simulations, Picchi also enjoyed some of the “space” rides, such as riding a centrifuge and a G-force simulator.

“For me it was a lot of fun,” Picchi said. “A lot of spinning and a lot of fun.”

The students were up at 7:30 a.m. and in bed by 10:30 p.m., with a non-stop day in between, she said.

“I had a lot of math and science to tackle,” she said. “But I have never laughed so much in a week.”