Heart of a Lion 2024

Date: October 10, 2024
Location: Austin Country Club
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

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HOL 2024: An Evening with NASA's José Hernández!

NASA engineer José M. Hernández wanted to fly in space ever since he heard that the first Hispanic-American had been chosen to travel into space.  "I was hoeing a row of sugar beets in a field near Stockton, Calif., and I heard on my transistor radio that Franklin Chang-Diaz had been selected for the Astronaut Corps," says Hernandez, who was a senior in high school at the time.  "I was already interested in science and engineering," Hernandez remembers, "but that was the  moment I said, 'I want to fly in space.'  And that's something I've been striving for each day since then."  That hard work paid off when he was selected to begin training as a mission specialist as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class. In 2006, José completed Astronaut Candidate Training and in 2009, he was a mission specialist on the STS-128 mission on board the Space Shuttle, Discovery.

One of four children in a migrant farming family from Mexico, Hernandez -- who didn't learn English until he was 12 years old -- spent much of his childhood on what he calls "the California circuit," traveling with his family from Mexico to southern California each March, then working northward to the Stockton area by November, picking strawberries and cucumbers at farms along the route.  They would then return to Mexico for Christmas and start the cycle all over again in the spring.

"Some kids might think it would be fun to travel like that," Hernandez laughs, "but we had to work.  It wasn't a vacation." To hear more about Hernandez and his story of perseverance, inspiration, and success, get ready to attend our 2024 Heart of a Lion Gala!