CAREERS
MAKING HER HOMETOWN PROUD NASA software engineer Andrea Connell shares her passion for STEM careers. BY SAM STROOZAS | CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Holmen native Andrea Connell made her way from a student programming job at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab working on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, where she says diverse backgrounds lead to the best problem solving.
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hen Holmen graduate Andrea Connell stepped foot on campus at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, she didn’t know that in a few short years she would be a software engineer at NASA. She didn’t know any programming when she arrived at UW-La Crosse, but after a visit to the advising center, she figured out which courses were required to explore a future in programming. She soon got a job at the Office of Residence Life as a student programmer, where she worked on room sign-ups, tracking student applications and tech support. She remembers going to her programming classes, then right to work, where she would apply everything she was learning. “It was really hands-on, and they trusted us,” she says about her on-campus job. “When I think back about what that ‘major moment’ was for me, it was my programming job at UWL.” MAKING HER NEXT MOVE When exploring future career options, Connell came across an application to NASA’s internship program. She didn’t know much about it but thought it would not hurt to apply. “The application looked like any other part-time job,” Connell says. “So I thought I could at least fill out the application.” She was hoping to get an internship at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida but was offered a position at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, where she works now. She decided to take the internship, which she now says was better than she ever could have hoped for. After her internship, she went to work for Amazon but kept in touch with those at the Jet Propulsion Lab, still interested in the work they were doing. In the back of her mind, she knew she wanted to
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work there again. She later applied for a full-time job in the lab and has now been working with NASA since 2015. Since then, she has done software development for the Deep Space Network, the Cassini Mission to Saturn and the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. DIVERSIFYING THE FIELD In her own experience, Connell was surprised at coming to NASA because she had assumed you had to be a child prodigy or working toward the goal of NASA your entire life—but that is not the case. In fact, a current passion project of hers is helping underrepresented young women feel supported in the often male-dominated field of STEM. She volunteers with Black Girls Code and Girls Who Code. “One of the big things about computer science and programming is solving problems,” Connell says. “You really have to think through the problem and the best way to solve it, and the best way to do that is to have a diverse group of people in that problem-solving process.” She has found that by incorporating diverse voices, problems can be solved more efficiently and with intersectionality and access at the forefront. Her colleagues come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and Connell believes it makes the atmosphere all the richer. “People come from all different backgrounds and end up at NASA,” she says. “There is no one path to take; you don’t have to have it all planned out from the beginning. It is never too late to get started; you can come at it from whatever angle is the most interesting for you.” CRW Sam Stroozas is a UW-La Crosse grad and journalist in Chicago focusing on gender and sexual health issues.
