Once again, 16-year-old Madeleine Lueders, an incoming junior at Hillsboro High School, spent part of her summer reaching for the stars. Last year, Lueders participated in SpaceTrek, an all girls camp focusing on space science and engineering at Morehead State University in Kentucky. This year, she traveled to Prescott, Ariz. and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where she participated in the advanced Astronautics Track Aerospace Engineering program.
The program, which ran from June 3-8, was designed for elite students aged 15-18, and focused on the fundamental skills needed to develop space mission concepts and how these concepts relate to astronautical engineering.
Lueders was granted a full scholarship to the program based on her academic performance, her interest in the program, and her past attendance and experience in space programs. She has changed her focus over the years from astrophysics and space travel to aerospace engineering to satellite information gathering, but the outcome is the same – she wants to tap into the future of international space cooperation and communication.
The Embry-Riddle program was a mathematics intensive program where students were challenged to gain a better understanding of rockets, spacecraft, satellites, orbits and the techniques developed by the American Spaceflight Program. Classes included mathematics, physics, astronomy, dynamics, astrodynamics, altitude determination and control, space systems engineering, propulsion, and the history of the American spaceflight program.
When she returns to school in the fall, Lueders will continue to participate in the marching band and theatre programs at Hillsboro H.S. She is working toward science and arts honors diplomas and has the goal of graduating with her associate’s degree degree from Southern State Community College alongside her high school classes.
In the meantime, Lueders is relaxing for the rest of the summer and volunteering at a wildlife refuge center in Washington, D.C. In her spare time, she enjoys playing her guitar, piano and French horn, and is teaching herself the Arabic, Russian and Chinese languages.
Submitted by Mindy Lawson.
