STUTTGART - What do you want to be when you grow up' For the kids at BAfAPblingen Elementary Middle School, that's an easy one.
"Astronaut!" yelled a group of third-graders in unison when prompted by one of their teachers.
It's a pipe dream that came a little closer to reality when Capt. Heidemaire Stefanyshyn-Piper, a real-life astronaut, stopped by for a presentation at the school recently.
"You've got to study hard in school. You've got to like math and science, and you've got to do your best and never give up," Stefanyshyn-Piper told the awe-struck children.
Studying hard is probably an understatement coming from the St. Paul, Minn. Native, who has a Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But it's still some pretty good advice from someone who knows what they're talking about.
Stefanyshyn-Piper and her team returned from a 16-day Space Shuttle Endeavor mission to the international space station in November. The mission included expanding the living quarters of the space station to eventually house six-member crews by delivering a new bathroom, kitchenette, two bedrooms, an exercise machine and a water recycling system. Stefanyshyn-Piper performed three spacewalks durA,A!ing the mission.
The Navy officer of 23 years is part of a group of astroA,A!nauts paying visits to troops overseas with the Armed Forces Entertainment program. The astronauts have met with deployed service members in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Qatar, as well as touring other military communities in Germany.
At BAfAPblingen Elementary Middle School, Stefanyhyn-Piper showed the students a video detailing life on the space station and took questions from the future NASA hopefuls.
One young student asked Stefanyshyn-Piper if her team was "the one that lost the really expensive toolbox."
Stefanyshyn-Piper conceded, to the entertainment of the children, that her team was in fact responsible for the costly mistake. She used the story though, to reinforce her earlier point to the students about showing perseverance in the face of adversity.
Among the children in the audience were Stefanyshyn-Piper's niece and nephew. Her brother is a Marine officer stationed here in Stuttgart.
Stefanyshyn-Piper later visited children at Patch Barracks Elementary School and spoke with service members and other members of the Stuttgart community at the Patch Theater.
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