Doctoral Student Michelle Stage Receives MSGC/NASA Summer Award

MSCG Summer Awards

Congratulations to Michelle Stage, who was awarded a NASA/Maine Space Grant Consortium Fellowship for summer 2022 for “Going Where No Person has Gone Before: Supporting Diverse Identities and Perspectives in Aspiring NASA Students”.

Michelle states “There is a gap in the literature exploring marginalized students’ perspectives pursuing planetary sciences. In order to support NASA’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, we must understand how to foster a diverse workforce starting in higher education. Over the summer, I plan to run qualitative interviews through an intersectionality framework exploring facilitators and barriers to a NASA/planetary science career for STEM students with intersecting marginalized identities. In collaboration with our NASA partners, Dr. J. Benton and Jessica Partridge, this work has implications for NASA DEIA policies, employee training, and outreach education at collegiate institutions directed towards marginalized communities.”

Michelle Stage

Her mentor is Dr. Mollie A. Ruben

The full list of recipients is found in this UMaine News announcement .