DHPS learner Silke Redecker attends Global Space School

DHPS learner Silke Redecker attends Global Space School Every year learners aged 16 to 18 years from all around the world meet at the NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, for their annual United Space School. However, with the global pandemic this was unfortunately impossible this year.

This NASA-funded project is organised and coordinated by the Foundation for International Space Education (FISE) to develop and arouse the young generation’s interest in outer space.

So far more than 800 young people from 25 countries have attended the programme and were granted this privilege, since attendance is by invitation only.

Silke Redecker, a grade 12 learner at the Deutsche Höhere Privatschule Windhoek (DHPS), was one of the privileged participants who got the opportunity to represent Namibia at this year’s Global Space School simultaneously with her written Abitur exams.

Unfortunately, even the Global Space School Programme was different this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of the scheduled two weeks’ stay in Houston, the participants attended daily meetings via Zoom, watched YouTube streaming and took part in virtual presentations.

The teams’ final presentations for the FISE board of directors and the daily exchange sessions were time consuming but worth the effort according to Redecker.

“For me, it was definitely worthwhile to participate in this programme, even during my Abitur exams. I learned an incredible amount, not only about the space industry, but also about other people and cultures,” she said.

She added that she found out that one can also be a team player through Zoom and that one can connect with people in this way.

“I am also sure that I would like to work in the space industry one day. It was a very long process up to those two weeks, for which I had to give up a lot, but I learned just as much. It took a lot of hard work and self-discipline. But it was worth it,” she said.