I tell students that the opportunities I had were a result of having a good educational background. Education is what allows you to stand out.

I hope to continue to inspire our nation's youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math so they, too, may reach for the stars.

A hallmark of the Latino community is to help one another, if students are interested in a way to give back and help their communities, becoming a teacher is probably one of the very best ways of doing that.

Usually, girls weren't encouraged to go to college and major in math and science. My high school calculus teacher, Ms. Paz Jensen, made math appealing and motivated me to continue studying it in college.

Being an astronaut is a wonderful career. I feel very privileged. But what I really hope for young people is that they find a career they're passionate about, something that's challenging and worthwhile.

I'll tell you, being involved in human space flight, it is an emotional endeavor. I think it brings in the highest highs and the lowest lows.

We continue to not only operate the International Space Station but to increase its capabilities as well as commercial contributions.

These robotic arms, provided by Canada, have been invaluable in allowing us to build, maintain, and repair space structures, and I've been very fortunate to have gotten to operate them.

Astronauts are very professional and when they're preparing for launch, they prepare for it as the most serious endeavor of our lives.

Throughout Johnson Space Center's history, contributions to STEM innovation and discoveries has been both through new technologies developed to advance human spaceflight and through educating, inspiring, and hiring students in STEM fields.