Engineering freshman wins NASA's Pioneer Award for mentoring in science
Janel Shoun |
| Naomi Florentino-Bustamante with her Pioneer Award from NASA |
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When Naomi Florentino-Bustamante decided to take on the role of junior head of marketing for a team of students building a robot for the annual FIRST engineering competition, she figured it would be a good way to hone her marketing skills before heading off to college.
She certainly didn’t expect the experience to change the entire direction of her life.
“Before the end of the competition, I was down in the pits making changes to the robot. I was making repairs. I was changing gears and bolts. No one could find me because I was always over by the robot,” she says.
After that, the future marketer with an interest in science forgot all about marketing and jumped into engineering, hoping to someday design robotic prosthetics for amputees, possibly combined with missionary work, she says.
In spring 2006, the Smyrna High School student had another life-changing experience when she met Ricky Holaway, Lipscomb University’s director of admissions, at the YMCA of Middle Tennessee Hispanic Achievers program. There she learned that Lipscomb was excited to welcome local Hispanic students and had established a scholarship of up to $5,500 per year for eligible Hispanic students, awarded through the YMCA.
Before she knew it, Florentino-Bustamante went from having little idea how to make college a reality to an enrolled freshmen at Lipscomb University majoring in mechanical engineering. “My first class with Dr. Gilliam (professor of engineering), I just loved it,” she gushes.
With little concern about being one of only a few women in a male-dominated program, she jumped in with both feet in her first semester signing up to work on the university’s annual project to build an all-terrain vehicle to compete in a national contest. She even volunteered as a student leader at Lipscomb’s robotics camp this summer before her freshman year even began.
Her enthusiasm, devotion to her craft and commitment to mentoring those younger than herself was recognized, and now she can chalk up another life-changing experience: this fall she was awarded the Next Generation Pioneer Award, a $5,000 scholarship provided through the NASA-based Science, Engineering, Math & Aerospace Academy (SEMAA), a nationwide program involving thousands of underserved youngsters in science and technology enrichment programs.
Florentino-Bustamante was involved in the SEMAA program at Tennessee State University beginning in the 10th grade, but continued to volunteer as a SEMAA mentor after heading to college at Lipscomb. The TSU SEMAA coordinator, Todd Gary, was impressed, and nominated her for the NASA Pioneer Award.
As she and her family have little financial capability, Florentino-Bustamante was thrilled to get an extra economic boost this semester, but the true value of the award for her was the September trip to Washington D.C. to pick up the award, when she was able to spend time in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. “I was like a little kid being shown thousands of ice cream flavors,” she says of her visit to the famous science-themed museum.
Florentino-Bustamante still volunteers at the SEMAA program at TSU, passing on her enthusiasm for science and technology to other underrepresented youth.
“I try to motivate them to do better in school. Most of them don’t have much support,” she said. “The little kids see me and are amazed I go to college or the older kids ask me about courses to take.”
Florentino-Bustamante said she is grateful to all her mentors and her family who have always encouraged her to be her best. She also believes God guided her to that life-changing robotics competition and to Lipscomb to study.
“If it wasn’t for Lipscomb saying, ‘Come to our school,’ I don’t know where I would be,” said the girl who as little as one month prior to high school graduation wasn’t sure where she would attend college or exactly how it would be paid for. “Lipscomb is such a big part of my life right now. It’s such a great place to say, ‘The world needs some change and I’ve got to do it,’” she said, displaying that award-winning pioneer spirit of hers.