Levi Kulper, a 7th grader at Orcas Christian School, was nominated by two of his teachers (Mrs. Parks and Mrs. Andrade) to attend a one-week program called National Youth Leadership Forum Explore STEM: Mission to Mars on the Northwest University campus in Seattle from June 16-21. NYLF has programs in subjects ranging from Aerospace, Aviation, and Engineering to Business, Law, and Medicine. The program Levi will be attending will include a forensic science simulation, an engineering design simulation, a robotics programming simulation, a medical simulation, a visit and talk by a former NASA astronaut, and many other experiences. He will be meeting kids from around the country with similar interests, and will be rooming with his friend Culain Silver, an OCS student who was also nominated for the program.

“This program is really interesting to me because I spend a lot of my time thinking about the universe, quantum physics, what happens and how time works in black holes, time paradoxes, and the possibilities of life on other planets. I’d like to be an astronaut who goes to Mars, or to build the things astronauts use to go to Mars. (I would actually like to explore other solar systems, but that’s not going to happen in my lifetime, which is sad.) Someday I want to be involved in fields like bioengineering, robotics, 3D printing, and design. Right now as a kid, I would love to do experiments with chemicals, plasma, hydrogen, microwaves, and robotics, but I don’t have funding for all of that. This is the kind of program that I would like to do since I can’t do all of that very easily. I want to do this because I want to be as connected and involved with these fields as they relate to space as possible as I’m growing up.”

Levi has set up a GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-levi-kulpers-mission-to-mars-stem-program to help cover the costs, if you would like to contribute.