Schoolgirls quiz female astronaut

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

RIDE

While one girl wondered if Ride was "persecuted" by men in the space program, most others wanted to know about practical things: what astronauts eat on the shuttle, how they sleep and eat.

Ride, 52, who went to an all-girls high school, talked to students at the girls school about career routes into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and showed them slides of shuttle views from space.

Her stories inspired many in the audience to reach for the stars yesterday, even if some no longer feel there are gender barriers to surmount.

"I think we've done it all, personally," said Jena Eppolito, an eighth-grader.

Studying science — one of the paths to NASA — isn't much of an obstacle for girls at La Pietra, Eppolito said. "At our school, they make it fun. They make you want to learn," she said.

In contrast to Ride's first mission in 1983, space shuttle missions have become common enough that La Pietra students say they generally don't watch the launches on television. "It's not so much of a big deal," said senior Jaime Sato.

But that didn't abate their curiosity about what the missions were like, and they laughed as Ride explained the complex velcro bedding system that astronauts quickly discarded in favor of sleeping in midair.

The description of the air-suction toilet also elicited a lot of giggles.

Kim Tran, a junior, was speechless for a few moments after taking Ride's photo. While she is leaning toward a career in foreign diplomacy, she was intrigued. "It might be kind of fun to be weightless," she said.

Seventh-grader Rachel Briggs liked hearing about the difficulties astronauts have in space, particularly sleeping. "It was really, really good to hear about space," she said.

Ride passed on advice she was given when she showed an interest in science: If you're good at it in elementary school, you'll be good in high school and college, as long as you keep up your self-confidence.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.