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My name is Tom Gutierrez and I'm an engineer
at NASA Stennis Space Center.

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In Nicaragua my father was a civil engineer
and my mother was a teacher.

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We migrated to the U.S. and they had to rebuild
a new life with new careers and new jobs,

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however that education--because they were
both college graduates--they kind of instilled

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that in my sister and I, that education and
school was going to be our way to be successful

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and so because of that we're always kind of
focused on education.

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I got my college degree and was able to come
and work for NASA.

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I think about heritage and where I come from
it always goes back to family.

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My immediate family is a small family but
together we make a large group.

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I've always had a big support system, cousins,
aunts and uncles that were always around and

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I still have a lot of family back in Nicaragua
and I think that kind of strong network is

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what I carry with me and I hope to pass to
my kids that we are kind of one.

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The highlight of my career so far has been
obtaining my professional engineering license.

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It's something that I wanted to do since I
got out of school and I had to apply myself

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and study and work hard towards getting it.

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I think it's something that's helped open
a lot of doors here at NASA and advanced my

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career.

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So I think for any young person or young Hispanic
trying to join NASA, the most important part

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is to focus on their education.

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I think that you need to learn about the organization...
it's a large organization there are many opportunities

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outside of what you would think of from the
astronaut movies, there are lawyers, accountants,

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engineers, and I think if you learn more about
NASA it would help to join.

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I think the part that I'm most proud of working
at NASA is being part of an organization that

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has a bigger mission to advance science and
technology I think the work that we do here

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at NASA and the organization as a whole has
a very positive impact on society and I'm