Arizona girl joins university at 12, aspires to join NASA at 16

Alena Wicker, a young woman from the United States, has made headlines after she got selected to be a part of NASA, all of 16 years old. Alena, from the state of Arizona in the United States, has already completed her entire high school through homeschooling. She is also set to begin her college education at Arizona State University later this year.

The 12-year-old is confident she will be working at NASA by the time she is 16 years old. Currently, she plans to study astronomy,  planetary science and chemistry. In a video she posted online, she said, “I will fly one of those future spaceships by the time I graduate from college. It doesn’t matter what your age or what you plan to do. Dream for it and then accomplish it.” Alena said she was inspired by NASA after seeing NASA’s rover land on Mars after perseverance recently.

Alina’s ability to learn things quickly was first noticed by her mother, Daphne McCarter. After noticing that her daughter learned the whole school curriculum quickly, she realised that her daughter was a prodigy. “At the age of 4, Alena told me I was going to work for NASA and I was going to go there. Alina would point to the stars. She naturally had the ability for numbers and logos and science. So I started to develop that skill,” Daphne said.

Now, 12-year-old Alena plans to start a podcast to create her profile for a NASA job with a college course. Michael Gurney holds the record for the youngest person to graduate from college. It is noteworthy that he was just 10 years old when he received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology.

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