College Trip to McDonald

I was a college student at UT in the early '90s, and had to do a photo essay for photojournalism class. I chose McDonald Observatory as my subject matter. I didn't know a soul at the Observatory, but contacted them and asked permission to visit. I was allowed to come out and photograph the telescopes inside the domes, and got a private tour of just about everything. It was incredible.

The trip fueled my love of astronomy. Back on campus in Austin, I ended up interning at StarDate magazine, which led me to a couple of summers interning in Hubble Space Telescope press office, then grad school for science journalism, and finally into a PR job at one of the national observatories.

And now here we are, almost 20 years later. I'm working with the folks at McDonald who helped me out back in my school days. I'm learning more about astronomy all the time. It's amazing to get to communicate discoveries about the universe that are made right here in Texas!