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I’m most proud of my heritage in the sense
of the fact that African Americans are people

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of strength.\h

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We are people of perseverance and we are spiritual
people.\h

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And when you put those things together I think
you get a community of folks who are loving,

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kind, we embrace all people and at the same
time we have a way of loving one another that

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maybe is not experienced anywhere else.\h

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Only in a NASA environment is when you are
allowed to actually exercise those things

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that you bring to the table that are unique
to you, those things that are critical to

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the mission and watching them come together
and mold together such that you address the

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NASA mission, you see this product following
off into space and when I was at school at

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MIT there’s nothing better than actually
doing the space stuff.

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Putting stuff into orbit just doesn’t compare
to driving a car or building a car.\h

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Well I am the product of two teachers from
a small town in South Louisiana.\h

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And it is a highlight; it is an unexpected
emergent property that a small boy from South

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Louisiana who had no idea what he was going
to do when he got to college, ended up at

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NASA.\h

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Having dealt with and played with Major Matt
Mason as a kid, the space toys, never thought

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in my wildest dreams that I would be here
at NASA doing the things that I do today.\h

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And it’s only through the grace of God that
I’m here.\h

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In preparation for working with NASA especially
for those that are young, I would suggest

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that they learned to 1) read well, write well,
understand math and continue to study science

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along with that along the way.

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The other part of it is that get comfortable
speaking about what’s important to you.

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I learned a long time ago that you can have
a great idea but if you are not able to communicate

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that idea in written or oral forms the idea
doesn’t exist.

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Until it leaves your brain and is communicated
to someone else it just won’t exist in that

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how great you are and how wonderful you are,
the world will never know.

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The reason that I am an engineer is because
it came from my grandfather and then my dad

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after that.\h

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My grandfather could build anything.\h

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He could visualize it and then create it out
of nothing but he was never able to do it

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in an environment where he had to support
a community, you know?

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He did it from a survival standpoint but those
skills and capabilities I watched him and

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my father and my uncles do those things and
that just inspired me to figure out how stuff

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works, why do things work the way they do
and then turn that around and then get it