Blast to the Future

By Jason Jackson Wallace | May 1, 2015
Candidate for MBA, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Note: Jason Jackson Wallace is a member of the Ross School of Business MAP team that has been working with ETR to explore new possibilities and opportunities for our organization's work boosting STEM education.

As a little kid, I spent a lot of my time reading and dreaming about space exploration. Often I would read about NASA’s future plans and envision myself as a future astronaut exploring Mars. It seemed like a sure thing to me.

 

I expected that by the time I’d be old enough to fly, we’d already have a colony on Mars. The idea of exploring and living on another planet would be read about in textbooks rather than science fiction novels.

 

Disappointingly, my imagination outstripped reality. However, that dream motivated me to continue pursuing science and mathematics throughout my education.

Mars is Still Far Away

Today, I often feel that Mars exploration is just as distant as it was when I was little. It always seems to be on the horizon 20 to 30 years in the future. But it doesn’t have to be.

It’s my personal goal to ensure that space exploration is accelerated through the development of commercial space technologies. In fact, that’s the reason I’m at the Michigan Ross School of Business.

It’s my hope that the first human to set foot on Mars has already been born. Naturally, that person will need the technology and infrastructure to get there. But he or she is also going to need the inspiration and the drive to do so.

That’s why STEM education is vitally important to me. I can carry the torch, but I need a new generation of scientists, engineers and explorers to pass it off to. That’s what led me to work with ETR for my MAP—to help enable and empower that new generation to pursue STEM education and, hopefully, realize the future I imagined when I was younger.

And while that may only be my own vision for the future, I’ve come to believe through the course of working with ETR that a strong and diverse group of STEM professionals will almost certainly play a role in any vision for a healthy, prosperous and vibrant future. So I hope you’ll join me in helping young people pursue their own dreams and improving the world through STEM education.  

 

Jason Jackson Wallace is a member of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business class of 2016. He has degrees in both aerospace and astronautical engineering and has served in the United States Air Force, where he led several satellite launch campaigns. He can be reached at jasonjwa@umich.edu or found at LinkedIn. For Jason, it is rocket science!