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PROFILES OF PIONEERING SPIRIT

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Aditya Shah ’25

Birguj, Nepal

Adriana Roberts ’90

San Francisco, California

Amy Giannotti ’95

Winter Park, Florida

Angela Mestemacher Vande ’95

Grand Prairie, Canada

Angelique Evans ’09

Champaign, Illinois

Ashley Thomas ’14

Garfield Heights , Ohio

Bart Gullong ’70

Connecticut

Darren LaShelle ’89

San Francisco, California

Diana Rohlman ’07

Corvallis, Oregon

Don and Leslie Straub Ritter ’81

Dallas, Texas

State

California
Adriana RobertsDarren LaShelleJohn V. Ulakovic
Canada
Angela Mestemacher Vande
Connecticut
Bart Gullong
D.C.
Lindy Nester
Florida
Amy GiannottiStory Musgrave
Hawaii
Dr. Kenneth Andrus
Illinois
Angelique Evans
New Jersey
Krista Tkacz
North Dakota
Rachel Baughman Bachmeier
Ohio
Ashley ThomasScott and Rachel Worthington Burnham
Oregon
Diana Rohlman
Pennsylvania
Megs Schreck Yunn
Texas
Don and Leslie Straub RitterSarah Mayo
West Virginia
Leah Seaman
Wisconsin
Dr. Joseph Webb

Country

Nepal
Aditya Shah
Browse
Close
People Location
Aditya Shah ’25

Birguj, Nepal

Adriana Roberts ’90

San Francisco, California

Amy Giannotti ’95

Winter Park, Florida

Angela Mestemacher Vande ’95

Grand Prairie, Canada

Angelique Evans ’09

Champaign, Illinois

Ashley Thomas ’14

Garfield Heights , Ohio

Bart Gullong ’70

Connecticut

Darren LaShelle ’89

San Francisco, California

Diana Rohlman ’07

Corvallis, Oregon

Don and Leslie Straub Ritter ’81

Dallas, Texas

State

California
Adriana RobertsDarren LaShelleJohn V. Ulakovic
Canada
Angela Mestemacher Vande
Connecticut
Bart Gullong
D.C.
Lindy Nester
Florida
Amy GiannottiStory Musgrave
Hawaii
Dr. Kenneth Andrus
Illinois
Angelique Evans
New Jersey
Krista Tkacz
North Dakota
Rachel Baughman Bachmeier
Ohio
Ashley ThomasScott and Rachel Worthington Burnham
Oregon
Diana Rohlman
Pennsylvania
Megs Schreck Yunn
Texas
Don and Leslie Straub RitterSarah Mayo
West Virginia
Leah Seaman
Wisconsin
Dr. Joseph Webb

Country

Nepal
Aditya Shah

Amy Giannotti ’95

Winter Park, Florida

B.S Biology — Marietta College; Minors: Environmental Studies, Leadership & Political Science — Marietta College; M.S. Environmental Science (focus on Marine Ecology) — university of Virginia; MCAA 2011 Distinguished Alumna

About

Founder & Environmental Scientist, AquaSTEM Consulting, LLC • Director of Development, Schoolyard Films • Certified Lake Manager • Certified Wildland Firefighter • Certified Cavern Diver • Certified Enriched Air Nitrox • Open Water/SCUBA Diver • Aquatic Science Educator & Species Collection Certification • Project W.E.T. (Water Education for Teachers)

Story Musgrave ’60

Orlando, Florida

B.S. Mathematics and Statistics – Syracuse University (1958); MBA in Operations Analysis and Computer Programming – University of California at Los Angeles (1959); B.A. Chemistry — Marietta College (1960); Doctorate in Medicine – Columbia University (1964); M.S. Physiology and Biophysics – University of Kentucky (1966); M.A. Literature – University of Houston (1987)

About

NASA — Scientist-Astronaut; Denver General Hospital — Trauma Surgeon (part-time); Kentucky Medical Center — Professor of Physiology and Biophysics (part-time); U.S. Marine Corps — Aviation Electrician, Instrument Technician, Aircraft Crew Chief; U.S. Air Force — Post-doctoral fellow

Icon for their major

Amy Giannotti ’95

Winter Park, Florida

B.S Biology — Marietta College; Minors: Environmental Studies, Leadership & Political Science — Marietta College; M.S. Environmental Science (focus on Marine Ecology) — university of Virginia; MCAA 2011 Distinguished Alumna

About

Founder & Environmental Scientist, AquaSTEM Consulting, LLC • Director of Development, Schoolyard Films • Certified Lake Manager • Certified Wildland Firefighter • Certified Cavern Diver • Certified Enriched Air Nitrox • Open Water/SCUBA Diver • Aquatic Science Educator & Species Collection Certification • Project W.E.T. (Water Education for Teachers)

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Amy Wooddell Giannotti ’95 could just as easily have focused all her efforts on her environmental science consulting business, AquaSTEM Consulting, or spend her time enjoying and exploring the abundant waterways that surround her in Florida. But the environmental scientist and marine ecologist has another passion: sharing her knowledge with children who otherwise would not have access to the beauty of nature.

In 2019, Giannotti joined Schoolyard Films, a nonprofit organization that creates high-quality environmental documentaries and supplemental educational tools for children for use in classrooms and homeschool settings for free. As traditional classrooms were shuttered in Spring 2020 by the global pandemic, parents and educators turned to virtual education to help keep children engaged in the learning process.

“I’ve been in a number of Zooms with kids over the course of this last school year — in fact, I was just talking to a class in Alaska about horseshoe crabs, which are only found on the East Coast of the United States. So, for those kids, it was something really foreign to them, but the film we created features how horseshoe crabs are used in the development of vaccines and medications — so it was all very relevant in terms of what we are all going through with COVID.”

Growing up in Williamstown, West Virginia, Giannotti is the daughter of a competitive surfer and a wildlife biologist/forester, so she spent an abundant amount of time outdoors learning about the natural world and grew to love water and ecology. After graduate school, she began teaching in rural Virginia and soon realized that many of the children she taught had little or no exposure to the same experiences that made her love studying biology and environmental science. She first connected with Schoolyard Films when she was still working with the Cambrian Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the conservation and education of underwater ecosystems.

“The man who founded Schoolyard Films (Tom Fitz) is a multi award-winning cinematographer who does a lot of work for the BBC, Discovery, National Geographic, Planet Earth, etc., and those types of programs. He had an idea in 2008 when he was filming for a documentary for the BBC.”

Related Links

Schoolyard Films
AquaSTEM Consulting
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Amy uses her environmental science expertise to lead her company, AquaSTEM Consulting LLC, and lends her skills to serve as Director of Development for the non-profit organization, Schoolyard Films.

Giannotti said Fitz would spend three weeks on location filming and it would be edited down for a five-minute segment.

“But he had all this additional footage so he asked if he could take what was left to create environmental documentaries for kids K through 12. The first one he did was called Florida’s Wild Side; it was in 2008 and it was initially produced for the BBC. Once the BBC was finished with the film, they released all the rights to the little film to him. And with that, he launched Schoolyard Films.”

That film was translated in more than five languages and is available in at least 11 countries. It was the featured film on flights from London to Miami on American Airlines for many years. With every film, National Board Certified Science Teachers develop study guides and other supplemental learning activities specific to elementary, middle, and high school students to enhance the learning experience for children. The films, guides, and activities are aligned with state and national science standards and are accessible to teachers, parents, students, and the general public for free.

“And the other thing that I absolutely love is that Schoolyard Films is also part of the DCMP (Described and Captioned Media Programming) for hearing and visually impaired youth. So a child who is blind, for instance, can log onto the DCMP site and listen to our film and it has all of our textural 3-D description of what you would see on the screen. It’s neat that it’s available to literally everyone.”

Fitz contacted Giannotti about helping with a later film because of her work with the Cambrian Foundation. Schoolyard Films was planning a project about protecting the Floridan aquifer and using cave diving as a tool for data collection and exploration, and Fitz asked her if she could get a group of children together to film a lesson on groundwater protection and pollution prevention. Soon after, Giannotti joined the nonprofit, which is supported entirely by grants and donations.

Giannotti, who was named a Distinguished Alumna by the MCAA in 2011, hopes Marietta College alumni who are involved in education or public broadcasting utilize the free resources that Schoolyard Films creates so more children can develop a passion for science and a curiosity about the natural world. Schoolyard Films’ films are available for download or streaming from their website (schoolyardfilms.org) and are also available on PBS Learning Media, Apple Podcasts, DCMP’s site, and through the National Science Foundation’s Digital Library all at no cost.

“As a Biology major, I remember having friends saying to me, ‘What are you going to do with a Biology degree? You’re not going to make any money or be able to do anything with it.’ And I would say to them, ‘But that’s what I love so I’ll find a way.’ I think it’s important for kids to know that they have to do something that makes them happy and keeps them interested day-to-day and that they’re motivated about. It’s not just about money — you have to care about what you’re doing.”

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Story Musgrave ’60

Orlando, Florida

B.S. Mathematics and Statistics – Syracuse University (1958); MBA in Operations Analysis and Computer Programming – University of California at Los Angeles (1959); B.A. Chemistry — Marietta College (1960); Doctorate in Medicine – Columbia University (1964); M.S. Physiology and Biophysics – University of Kentucky (1966); M.A. Literature – University of Houston (1987)

About

NASA — Scientist-Astronaut; Denver General Hospital — Trauma Surgeon (part-time); Kentucky Medical Center — Professor of Physiology and Biophysics (part-time); U.S. Marine Corps — Aviation Electrician, Instrument Technician, Aircraft Crew Chief; U.S. Air Force — Post-doctoral fellow

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A dairy farm kid from Western Massachusetts, Story Musgrave had a talent for operating and fixing mechanical things. But farm life for a child can be a dangerous environment, and for Musgrave, it was life-changing.

“I was running combines at the age of 7 or 8, tying the knots for balers that didn’t tie (knots on bales). It was so dirty and dusty that I couldn’t see my hands, and if I put them in the wrong place, they’re gone forever,” Musgrave recalls during a recent visit to Marietta College. “I had several accidents. One of them was so bad I had to have neurosurgery to stop the bleeding.”

The young boy had fractured his skull after being run over by a piece of farm equipment. Despite the danger, farm work must go on.

“I came out of that with seizures,” he says. “So, I’m having grand mal seizures while I’m operating farm equipment, which is not a good story. But I’m here. I can’t complain.”

Starting with his farm kid upbringing, Musgrave spent his life building the skills and knowledge it took to become a true pioneer. He is the only NASA astronaut to fly on all five Space Shuttles, the second astronaut to fly on six space missions, and is the most highly educated astronaut in history. Those accomplishments didn’t come easy. He had to force those outcomes.

Musgrave didn’t graduate high school — an injury led to him forgoing his senior exams and enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he put his mechanical skills to work, soon earning the title of Crew Chief — the youngest in USMC history. He signed off on all the maintenance for the airplanes as airworthy to go to war. After serving three years active duty in the Marines, he continued on active reserve for three more years, driving tanks.

After his active duty, Musgrave enrolled at Syracuse University, where he studied mathematics and statistics on the G.I. Bill.

“I got into math and statistics to control all the factors in any situation,” he says. “I was a survivor at that point. I had to survive everything: the farm; the Marines. I got in these situations that I had to survive in, so I understood that, in any situation, you’ve got to identify all the factors that affect the outcome — the good factors that will help you and the bad factors that are going to hurt you getting to the outcome.”

After Syracuse, he and his mother moved from New York to California so Musgrave could attend UCLA to study computer programming and analysis. That’s where he first became interested in neurophysiology and decided his next stop would be medical school — but first, he had to complete undergraduate pre-med requirements. He and his mother started their drive back to Syracuse.

“I crossed the Ohio River going east and I run into this place,” he says, adding that the age and beauty of Marietta, as well as the presence of Marietta College and the pre-med offerings, were what led to him staying for his B.A. in Chemistry, which took him a year to complete. He then attended medical school at Columbia University, during which time he married and had four children. In addition to raising a family and completing medical school, he began developing another skill: parachuting.

“I would take my family parachuting with me,” he says. “They didn’t go parachuting but they saw Story Musgrave at work and they knew how it was going to turn out every time. (The kids knew) ‘He don’t mess around. He likes doing it but he’s going to force the outcome.’ ”

During his surgical training at the University of Kentucky, he saw a posting on a bulletin board that NASA was considering flying a scientist-astronaut. His mind was set on becoming a NASA scientist-astronaut. He left his clinicals to complete a two-year post-doc fellowship that resulted in a master’s degree in Biological Physics and also did research on parachuting.

“After the Marines, I did take up flying as a hobby,” he says. “I did a lot of flying, but (after learning about the NASA opportunity) I really focused and got my airline transport rating to get ready for the selection process because the competition was rough.”

The Marine, mechanic, pilot, parachutist, computer programmer, chemist, physiologist, mathematician, statistician, surgeon — and college wrestler — threw his name in the mix of candidates for the new NASA program.

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“They had 6,000 applicants and six of us got to space out of 6,000 — so the odds were kind of tough. … When I joined NASA, they said, ‘I hope we don’t bore you.’ They had looked at what I had done.”

Musgrave was selected in 1967 to work on the design and development of the Skylab program, as well as all of the Space Shuttle extravehicular and spacesuit equipment. He was on Space Shuttle Challenger’s first flight and did the first spacewalk in 1983. He was the first astronaut out the door, testing the new spacesuit and the new construction and repair devices and procedures with fellow astronaut Don Peterson. In addition to being on the Challenger in 1983 and 1985, Musgrave also was on the Space Shuttle Discovery (1989), Atlantis (1991), Endeavour (1993) and the Columbia (1996) missions.

“I became the lead spacewalker for 25 years with NASA,” he says. “I knew how to fix stuff. I was with the Hubble Telescope for 18 years before I had to fix it. They told me to identify every problem you could get into and what you’d do in a spacewalk to fix it. Of course, I’d get (the scientist-astronaut) job. No one had the mechanical skills and mechanical background that I had. I also had the physician and ergonomic skills of having to work with a biological body — the ergonomics. So, I was made for that job.”

Because he had always worked hard in a variety of areas, his workload didn’t really increase. He even created time to continue his medical work by flying one of the NASA airplanes from Texas to Colorado to work with the former chairman of surgery at Kentucky, who also led Musgrave’s first internship class. The surgeon left Kentucky to lead surgery at the University of Colorado and soon called Musgrave to join his team.

“He said, ‘Story, if you could join me two or three days a month up here, me and you can start a trauma department.’ I said, ‘Of course.’ ”

He was a trauma surgeon part-time for 28 years until frostbite damaged most of the fingers on his right hand while in a thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The chamber simulated super-cold and super-hot space conditions, and helped prepare him for the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission that he completed in 1993.

Musgrave was the only person in history to stay with the Astronaut Corps for 30 years. In total, he flew on six spaceflights, spent 53 days, nine hours and 55 minutes in space, spent 26 hours and 19 minutes in space outside of the spacecraft, accumulated more than 18,000 hours flying on NASA, military and civilian aircraft, completed 1,000 parachute jumps, and completed six undergraduate and advanced degrees.

Today, in addition to training and consulting, Musgrave is enjoying watching his youngest daughter — 16-year-old Story — learn to fly.

“I have kids in their 60s, 50s, and a 35-year-old who’s flying B-1s with the Air Force, and then there’s little Story, who’s 16,” he says. The two built their current plane with other children helping. Young Story’s flight instructor knows who her father is, and Musgrave is happy to augment some of her school lessons.

Looking back, Musgrave says his NASA work in space did make him a bit nervous.

“I don’t like risk,” he says. “The Shuttle was more risk than I wanted, but it was the way to get to space at the time, so I kept doing it. I don’t risk. I don’t want to go there. I like to control risk and I like to be ready, but of course, if I put myself in a bad machine, it’s over.”

In 1987 — while still actively working as an astronaut and a surgeon — Musgrave obtained a master’s degree in literature from the University of Houston. Though he would have liked to have tapped into that creative side, the breadth of his professional experience has been rewarding and remarkable.

“I could have been an artist and a writer, and so I missed that part,” he says. “It’s hard to do everything, but this (life) turned out pretty well.”

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