5/20/2018 The Cosmic Effect Paper
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The Cosmic Effect
Jonathan Sunny Laxmi
Leaders without ideas are impotent. Ideas without people are
impossible. To lead effectively, one must
understand people, and more importantly, have and express good
ideas.
Last summer, I worked with the Public Affairs ffice at !A"A#s
$ohnson "pace %enter and led the
creation of an innovative video pro&ect. ne of !A"A#s
primary goals is garnering public support in orderto increase
funding for scientific endeavors and spread public awareness about
the universe. 'efore I
&oined the team, !A"A funded its videos by using expensive
media crews. I intended to do somethingnever before done by interns
at !A"A(produce an in)house video at a professional level. I took
on the
task to direct, shoot, act in and select actors, narrate, and
edit an intern recruitment video in a cooperative
pro&ect with the ffice of Procurement, the %hief *inancial
fficer, and other interns within severaldirectorates.
Assembling information from a team of minds from diverse
divisions(mathematics, business,engineering, law and
communications(is no easy task. To prepare, I researched and
learned how to use
available e+uipment, more about !A"A#s pro&ects, and who the
target audience was. To gain familiarity
with the - camera, I volunteered to head the production of,
shoot, interview in, and edit footage for anacademic competition /,
0, 12 in which selected universities designed inflatable lofts
which will serveastronaut missions to 3ars and beyond. I then spoke
to engineers and scientists about pro&ect designs and
physics concepts and wrote articles $uly4 August05// Issues2,
fact sheets regarding experiments on the
International "pace "tation and onsite, and press releases about
ongoing initiatives to understand thescience behind the
operations.To understand the public#s needs, I then worked with the
6ducation ffice
to gauge and then create informative materials by designing
pamphlets, which creatively conveyed uni+ue
programs information for students, educators, and the public. 'y
+uantitatively and +ualitativelyanaly7ing the social media presence
of !A"A#s programs, I also earned a better sense of the reach
and
spectrum of !A"A#s public outreach initiatives. 8ltimately, my
design was selected as the one to be used
for future informative materials which will be distributed by
the 6ducation ffice regarding scientific
programs.
*inally, to grasp the organi7ation#s breadth and observe
operations in person, I volunteered in the
newsroom during important mission days, escorted media groups
and explored many facilities before,during and after the final
shuttle mission. 3y experiences included speaking to over twenty
astronauts,
interacting with !eil de9rasse Tyson, discussing scientific
ideas with other prominent members of the
scientific community ranging from engineers to planetary
scientists to particle physicists including teammembers working on
the Alpha 3agnetic "pectrometer under -r. "am Ting2, escorting
media crews from
over ten ma&or networks and engaging with the public
regarding their views on scientific endeavors and
the space program. -uring this period, I collected information
from all "huttle *light %ontrol :oomconsole positions; group leads
for the Public Affairs ffice to be used for media reference
material and so
understood the groups# different functions. *inally, I was given
the responsibility to draft the proposal forthe Post)*light
Activities %alendar budget for the "T")/1< crew, explaining why
their mission was so
important, which directly and successfully contributed to the
budget#s approval. I learned not only about!A"A as an organi7ation,
but also about the power of independent effort and leadership
through the
combination of cooperative communication and good ideas.
3y resulting efforts pioneered a new process for !A"A, as I had
set a new standard for future employees
to follow(I left a tutorial explaining my process, and used all
of my experience to direct, edit, narrate
and act in, and create an epic videowhich will be used in the
years to come to inspire the public and otherstudents of science
like me to interact and indulge more in the scientific
community.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_A2BY3V3iEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FX2z1DUZi4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYyR_d2cvhMhttp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/online/2011/0711.pdfhttp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/online/2011/0811.pdfhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx3B4mIcgyE&lr=1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FX2z1DUZi4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYyR_d2cvhMhttp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/online/2011/0711.pdfhttp://www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/online/2011/0811.pdfhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx3B4mIcgyE&lr=1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_A2BY3V3iE
