Raven Delfina Otero-Symphony | Collective Chronicles

my name is Raven delinia Otero Symphony I am from aluer New Mexico which is located in the Southwest United States and I currently work full-time in the space industry as a data science consultant for financial Boutique quilty space equity and inclusion has always been a Cornerstone in my life I was raised in a very ethn Ally diverse family coming from New Mexico I don't think I've ever been in a room or a place that wasn't full of diversity and some sort of representation and even going through college as a first generation college student the programs that helped me the most were those that prioritize diversity equity and inclusion so I know I knew moving forward that it was going to be an important theme to continue I strongly believe in the lad down methodology which is if you get to a high place then you open up that door for everybody else I think that is a one of the most one of the main messages in diversity equity and inclusion in order to make everything accessible to more people you know I'm so blessed uh I did not know about the space industry until right before graduating college I I had aspirations of being an astronaut as a child and you would think being more in the space industry I'd still want to do that the running joke I have is that I'm starting to get scared of heights so I don't know if astronaut is still on the bill but I would love to run for office in my local community I think is one of the biggest goals that I have in my life the NASA space apps Collective has definitely Val or definitely added the value of that International perspective and that International dialogue um building communities outside of my own uh recognizing the parallels between different communities and what's different and why it's different um and what's important to different people I'm a strong believer of having different voices in the room and if you're not in the room bringing your own chair so I think the NASA space apps Collective um is a demonstration of that in in a very effective and a very intelligent way I think through a personal level I would like to continue building relationships with people around the world I think it's one thing to be able to connect through something like virtual meeting and then discuss but it's another thing to continually check up on one another and see how things are going and so I think building relationships is how great projects come about I think it's also how we really understand and Tackle these big issues that are being faced by different communities and actually I I do know one of the collective members and I are not that far apart in terms of location or distance and so when I had shared the project that I was working on he showed some interest and so I think there's potential for collaboration there which I think would be incredible and something that I did not imagine could be possible without the help of the collective and on a professional level again just furthering that collaboration but also having those tough discussions about what it means to be in the space industry why it's important and then using that to inform future professional decisions when it comes to more leadership roles that might open up or a community fa roles whether that's local or beyond that scope so right now I'm working on a a website project scope New Mexico and I think this is my direct and greatest contribution so far within the space industry and also that the collective has helped inform having these discussions with other Collective members I know I've mentioned like the parallels between the different communities and the the challenges and I actually uh was given the Great opportunity to present at the conference about scope New Mexico and what it is and this website project is is very replicable it's inspired by open science principles and it's simply addressing a gap that needs to be filled in the community when it comes to space education awareness or space professional development for us that's focusing on college students New Mexico actually has a lot of Aerospace and space industry initiatives that are happening but despite being a native New Mexican I had no idea this was even going on in my own backyard until I really became a professional in the space industry while there's a lot of really incredible and inspiring initiatives happening at the K through2 level and at the industry level nobody is addressing college students and they are quite frankly like directly into that Talent Gap that I think the space industry at large is sort of struggling with and so I think if we're able to explain what space activity is happening in the local community why it's important and how college students can get involved this can help address the Statewide initiatives for education and employment the diversity equity and inclusion initiatives that are beyond the pipelines that have been traditionally built in the state and then also again just provide that International context you know space is more than astronauts and space is more than rockets and I think if we can raise awareness of this for people that we can Inspire different groups that have historically been excluded from the conversation I've actually been a part of this myself by becoming the First new Mexican in the internationally competitive Brook Owens Fellowship so I know what it's like to be kind of the only representative in the room for something and kind of have that knowledge Gap and not know what's going on and now that I've kind of crossed that threshold with the help of NASA space apps Collective I'd love to pass that down in my community and help contribute to the discussion you know the greater discussion that's happening I think on a much more professional level which is not necessarily a bad thing but again I just I really think it's important to have different perspectives in the room even if it is a college student you know these are some of our like Rising leaders some of our best and brightest that are like hungry and are willing to go out there and search and I think if we can just let them know that there is opportunity available they'll take that up my background is in statistics and I currently work with a lot of data science initiatives in my day-to-day job I actually wanted to enter the space industry through Earth observation and more of the environmental side which I think NASA open data sets was really my pull towards that when I saw that that was something that was available to the general public I got really excited especially because I wasn't involved in the space industry until after I graduated so a lot of those resources that were available to me as a college student were no longer available to me as a professional I would like to work with the local accelerator here in Albuquerque to host the next NASA hackathon uh and hopefully get some some movement behind that it's something that I've never done before but I think somebody with my background in statistics and data science and community service could be a good fit and help expand that conversation to New Mexico the last thing that I have to say is that I just want to really thank the NASA space apps Collective and all of the organizers and the team and everybody participating because this was a really special experience

Channel: NASA Space Apps Challenge

Views: 49

Keywords: NASA, ESA, JAXA, CNES, CSA open data, data, hackathon, hackathons, Space Apps, science, tech, STEM, work from home, Space Apps Challenge, Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge, engineering, virtual hackathon, solutions, earth, virtual, space agency, space, technology

Id: ZT3a-fi-KlU

Length: 7min 27sec (447 seconds)

Published: Thu May 30 2024