Nicole Schoenstein's path to NASA was riddled with a variety of uncertainties and setbacks as she worked to get to where she is now.

Homebound Education

For the majority of my high school years, I completed my classes through homebound education. This was a program provided by my school where I was able to “attend” school in my home. Different teachers were sent to my home usually once per week to instruct me there.

Although all of my teachers were great at their jobs, a lot of this was independent learning since I was on my own for most of the week. It forced me to really learn the material, and I eventually started to enjoy the process of learning. However, this experience was made more challenging overall because of family issues.

Enrolling in College

Up until I enrolled in community college, I never thought I would go to college or even have a job or let alone a career. Over the years, I have dealt with a variety of challenges, which made going to school difficult.

College was the furthest thing from my mind because I didn’t see it as an option. It was never discussed at home, and I didn’t even know community college existed until I did research about it a couple of years after earning my high school diploma.

Working Through Complications

Around the time that I joined the honor society at community college, I became pregnant. The pregnancy had some complications and my son ultimately ended up being born with a birth defect, which required surgery two days after birth and two weeks of recovery in the hospital.

He has had complications over the years but is doing very well overall. It was also around this time that I got a part-time job at a law firm, which barely paid more than minimum wage — but my husband and I needed something to keep us afloat.

Finding a Career Path

As an undergraduate student, I was very much undecided about a career path. This led to me to jump around quite a bit. This was a good and bad thing. It was bad because it required more time and money, but good because I had the chance to try a variety of things. Some of the experiences and skills I acquired have aided me in ways that I didn’t foresee.

However, it was very much by chance that I ended up pursuing psychology and then human factors. I would encourage students to explore their interests at a community college if possible before going to a four-year university or beyond that. 

Want to read more?

We thought so.
Explore