A 23-year-old Spaniard leaves on a scholarship to NASA

David García, a 23 year old Ourense student of the second year of the University Master's Degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, has been selected by NASA to expand its formation in the US government agency responsible for the civil space program and aeronautical and aerospace research through a grant offered by the University of Illinois.

The young Galician, graduated in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, managed to be the best of his promotion in the specialty of aerospace vehicles, with an average of 8.95, and, in his first year of masters, he managed to be among the five percent of the students with the best grades. The excellence of David García is the reflection of his six years of primary education and two of ESO in the Concepción Arenal School and his two years of ESO and two years of Baccalaureate in the IES As Lagoas de Ourense, which he left with a backpack of outstanding, an average of 10, a registration of honor and a prize for pre-university excellence.

With the news still undigested, he assured Europa Press that he is still nervous and that he still does not believe it. "Imagine that they call me and tell me: we're wrong, it's not you." I heard the news when I woke up at dawn to go to the bathroom, I picked up my cell phone and saw the message, I said: this can not be. rest of the night ", has related.

The dream of David began to take shape at the end of last September. A former student of the Technical School of Aeronautical Engineering and Space (ETSIAE) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, who had gone to the United States to complete their training at NASA and which they hired after completing the internship, decided to go to his learning center to select a student and take it to the American aerospace agency. "He came at the end of September to give a talk, we were told by the School that, if we were interested, we sent an email to this person with letters of motivation and the curriculum, since they offered a three-month summer scholarship. Prior to the talk, she sent me an email informing me that she wanted to meet me in person, as well as nine other master's and fourth-grade classmates. ", recalled David. "She asked me about the experience, I told her that I had done a fourth-grade internship at the Instituto de Microgravedad" Ignacio Da Riva ", and if I had been away at some time, I was as sincere as possible. heads in the United States, that I sent him letters of recommendation and that I would do a Skype interview with her and her superiors ", has highlighted.

In this sense, he has specified that, in addition, he was instructed to prepare an article on a specific topic: application of computational fluid dynamics for new drone concepts, which are being investigated for aerial taxis to decongest transportation and as a means of parcel delivery, a task in which companies such as Uber or Airbus collaborate. "It is something quite innovative and will work with electric batteries, they will be sustainable", he has summarized to emphasize its importance in the context. "Last Friday - October 2, I had the interview with three people from NASA by Skype, I had to present in English a previous article I had to do. When I finished, I thought they would not call me, I was quite nervous. I did not expect it, the interview had gone quite wrong, I left sad and I thought I could have done it much better ", he assured.

This way, after having received the approval of the interviewers, a few days later, they offered to do the second semester practices with the American aerospace agency, so the initial three months scholarship from the University of Illinois will become a half-year stay at the Mountain View headquarters, located in Santa Clara (California).

"I'm still nervous, until you see me there and I know what the job is, I will not be all right." One of the interviewers warned me that the United States is different from Europe, that people are very competitive and that I would have to work hard and learn many new things ", has added.

David García has assured that, although he had planned to leave Spain at some point to enhance his training or work, he did not expect to leave the country so soon, but after completing the master's degree and the corresponding practices. Anyway, he said he is clear that the time to change jobs and residency is "now, not later." "Now, I can discover what I like most and learn, I do not want to see myself with 50 years and regret not having done what I like," he said. "At the beginning of the degree, I imagined that I would end up in Airbus or in another aircraft manufacturer, in fact, I had planned to do the internship at Airbus, I do not know if they will offer me to stay, but I am not sure if I would accept it, I do not know if I want to stay in the United States already, I'm in time to try things, when I finish, I'll be in Spain again, whatever happens in those six months, I plan to return ", has highlighted.

David Garcia has specified that two of the main fears of his next adventure will be the lack of experience and the language, which he understands perfectly and in which he assures that he defends himself, although he believes it is necessary to perfect it to face the challenges that will come up against Once you are installed in your workplace, where you expect to "go learn". "When speaking, there may be a word that gets stuck a little, but I see the series in English and read many documents in English; I have two subjects that I teach in their entirety in this language and one of the teachers is American, "he stressed.

However, he has advanced that he will not have much time to perfect English, since, he assured, he has to do "many jobs" for the master's degree, in which he has related that he is "saturated" and even forces him to "take advantage of bridges ". "They squeeze us a lot," he added.

"I only have three months to go, I do not even have time to say goodbye ... In this second year, I finish classes and exams in December until the end of January, I will not have time for anything. friends to Iceland at the end of the tests, I have to return from the trip, be a few days in Spain and go to the United States ", It has been recognized. In spite of all this, David García is sure that the opportunity "she is pretty" and it will help "strengthen the curriculum", since "it is good to have international experience". "I'm going to do the best I can", it is finished.