Leveraging Apollo’s 50th Anniversary for Future Missions

By Dean’s Intern Abbey Michaels at NASA’s Johnson Space Center

This summer I worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. While I worked in several departments during my 8 month internship, my main role this past summer was supporting the Apollo 11 50^th Anniversary. As part of my internship I helped to develop the strategic messaging and exhibits plan for 10 events in celebration of the historic moon landing.

One of the most important aspects of this internship was leveraging the Apollo Anniversary to communicate to the public about NASA’s current and future missions. While my major is Film and Media, I think my overall background in communications helped me to be successful in this internship. I was able to use various writing and media skills that I would not have had without the classes that I took at AU.

Overall this internship has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. Since many NASA interns continue on to work full time after graduation, the internship program is taken very seriously. Interns are given real responsibilities and treated like any other employee. As part of my summer internship, I acted as a liaison with the Houston Mayor’s office, held meetings where I briefed 400+ NASA employees, hosted an event with Apollo 10 astronaut General Thomas Stafford, was presented as 1 of 5 NASA women on the field at a Houston Dynamo game, and led 5 external events with 10,000 – 50,000 people in attendance. I have never had an internship that provided me with such enriching experiences and prepared me so well for life after graduation.