This student wrote a poem with his internship application to NASA, and got hired!
Matthew Noyes, currently works as the Software Lead at NASA’s Hybrid Reality and Advanced Operational Concepts Lab, where his job consists of utilizing his broad software and mechanical Engineering experience, to an entire spectrum of the space and defense industry.
He also interned with NASA twice before landing a full-time job with them. Getting through wasn’t obviously the worl’d largest Aeronautics and Space organizations wasn’t easy, and during his sixth application for an Internship opportunity at NASA, he decided to take a different route to stand out from the dearth of other applicants.
He wrote a poem.
Set in a classic Iambic Pentameter, his poem, that you can find below, was in response to one of the essay questions – “Why do you want to work for NASA?”
So much delight I found in early days,
in men of science sporting bright bow ties;
kindling, stoking, set light a mighty blaze
inspir’d by Tyson, Sagan, and Bill Nye!The universe’s pulchritude is clear
as a g’lactic night, festooned in lambent pearls,
and science, held so near and oh so dear:
house of exquisite truths we have unfurled!Ne’er a blessing quite like mathematics,
whose postulates and rules and laws resound.
Order and relationships pragmatic
give meaning, even structure, so profound!And ere my youngest days, or so I’m told,
yes, I knew the source of my vocation.
It is, I say, if I may be so bold:
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration!For there my heart would spark like steel and flint,
where truth and knowledge won are well esteemed,
and where the yearn to learn so fiercely glints
in a world where fame and pow’r are the dreamed.The seed of greed soci’ty takes to heart —
frivolity of currency and trade —
health for wealth, wealth for health; the soul d’part
unfulfilled, struck down by folly’s mad blade.“No No” said I, “would e’er I spend my life,
in hot pursuit of monetary gain.”
Perhaps the consequence: a life of strife,
but rather that than one consumed in vain.My friends may say they’ve seen I am the sort,
whose torrid passion quenches knowledge-thirst;
before I shuffle off this coil, mort,
to stars and Mars, I swear we’ll be the first.
“At NASA, there is passion and discovery. It inspires the next generation of scientists and engineers. It terraforms the socioeconomic landscape; our current way of living and our modern conveniences are largely due to spinoff Technology pioneered at NASA. We all wish to belong to something greater than ourselves; what NASA stands for and what it does is the embodiment of that ideal. I am humbled–and love–to be a part of the grand mission,” he said in an interview.
On what inspired him about NASA, and what advice would he dole out to aspiring NASA students, he says, “The space program challenges us, encourages the best and brightest of us to solve our toughest problems. It pushes the human race forward technologically, scientifically and culturally. It is risky. The cost of failure is in the billions. The cost is in human life. It is the burden everyone at NASA bears. To shoulder this burden inspires me the most. Beyond the great achievements of man in this age of space, our proudest hour is the moment when we transcend our fear of failure in our exploration of the cosmic void. It is this tenacity that makes us victorious. As you journey through life, do not be afraid. Be ashamed–until you have won your victory.”