NASA engineer urges local kids to launch STEM careers

PATTERSON — Dr. K. Renee Horton once dreamed of being an astronaut. But those dreams were grounded.
Now Horton, a Baton Rouge native and quality engineer for NASA, hopes her story will give young people wings.
Horton was a special guest Saturday at the St. Mary Back to School Bash, which drew hundreds of people to the Park Street Park for an event set up by the Gulf Coast Organization of Katy, Texas, which has local connections.
Along with the distribution of donated school supplies and the appearance by Horton, the event featured tables set up by Nicholls State, South Louisiana Community College and other schools; music; games; a fun jump; and scholarships presented to local students.
Horton serves as quality engineer at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility for the Space Launch System, designed to be the agency’s most powerful launch vehicle ever. The SLS will carry up to four astronauts on what NASA hopes will be deep space exploration.
There was a time when Horton hoped to go on such missions herself. A telescope she received at age 9 made her want to go into space.
But at 17, Horton learned she had a hearing impairment that would prevent her from becoming an astronaut.
“Now I’m excited about helping other people go into spaces,” she said.
Horton amassed a distinguished resume on her way to NASA.
She graduated from LSU with a degree in electrical engineering and a minor in mathematics. Her Ph.D. comes from the University of Alabama, where she studied material science with a concentration in physics. Her degree in that specialty, awarded in 2011, was the first to go to an African American woman.
She was elected president of the National Society of Black Physicists in 2016 and has served as a member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Women in Physics Working Group.
Horton wrote “Dr. H Explores the Universe,” a book about astronomy that was geared toward young people.
She often talks to the young about careers in science, technology, math and engineering.
“I really think it’s just a matter of outreach,” Horton said Saturday.
And she reached out to the kids at the Back to School Bash.
“To the young people who are running around out there,” she said. “my beautiful black and brown babies, you can be anything you want to be.”
Horton received several awards at the back to school event, including a poster bearing an astronomical chart.
She encouraged the attendees to make a connection by touching the poster.
“I’ll take it back to California with me,” Horton said.
Also at Saturday’s event, Gulf Coast awarded six scholarships, two of which went to Morgan City High graduate Hailee Jo Madise and Patterson High grad Josiah David Fields.
The local connection that brought Gulf Coast to the Back to School Bash is Rachelle Washington White, who grew up in Patterson.
White is now an attorney and administrative law judge in Texas. He’s also married to Gulf Coast CEO Kendrick White.
White attended the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts.
“That opportunity opened up so many doors for me,” Rachelle White said.
She hoped Saturday’s Back to School Bash would offer some opportunities “to the people who grow up in the same environment I did,” White said.