Junior Emily Ismail received the chance of a lifetime when she received a scholarship to go to Space Camp sponsored by the Honeywell Leadership Academy. The camp was held on February 22 through 28 at the U.S. Space and Rocket center in Hunstville, AL.

Ismail heard about the scholarship through her dad’s work and decided to apply. The scholarship paid for the whole camp, minus the plane ticket to get there. Although Ismail’s father’s company was involved, the scholarship was offered locally as well as globally.

“It was cool getting to meet people from around the world,” Ismail said. “There were students from 38 different countries and 33 states.”

The camp consisted of many space activities such as a flight simulator to help practice landing planes, rocket-building, space shuttle tour, and a mock space mission. The camp was also leadership-based, so they participated in high ropes and other team building activities.

“I would have to say the flight simulator was my favorite activity,” Ismail said. “It was really cool to sit in a plane simulation where actual pilots train.”

The camp was not all about space. They learned about many other Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) based careers and got to visit a center called the Hudson Alpha to learn about genetics. Although Ismail isn’t planning on going into a space career, the camp still helped her as they got to learn about other careers as well as team building.

“I would like to go into pharmacy in the future,” Ismail said. “So space won’t help out much, but the camp did teach me a lot about teamwork.”

Ismail plans to apply as an ambassador for next year’s Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy.