BOSTON — After leaving NASA, pioneering astronaut Sally Ride, who died on July 23, 2012 at the age of 61, dedicated her career to encouraging girls to stay excited in science. Through her education company, she held camps and teacher institutes, and put cameras on satellites purely for students to take their photos of the moon's surface.
In 2010, NOVA was invited to attend Dr. Sally Ride's Roundtable Discussion about Gender Equality in Math and Science Education. Along with Ride, the event featured NASA scientist Maria Zuber, former Miss Massachusetts and founder of the WhizKids Foundation Erika Ebbel, and former Gov. Jane Swift.
At the event, Ride said it was important to make sure girls got as much encouragement as boys to pursue careers in science. To her mind, success would come "when the number of high school girls equals the number of high school boys going into science and engineering careers."
Finally, she commented that you didn't have to be a genius to be a scientist: All you need, she said, is passion and hard work.
> > READ: Dr. Sally Ride's roundtable discussion in Massachusetts
> > LISTEN: The Takeaway talks to physicist Michio Kaku and one of Ride's childhood friends
