Chaminade Student Spends Week in Astronaut Training

A Chaminade High School student from Wantagh is one of 227 high school students from 30 countries who recently received a scholarship to participate in intensive astronaut training at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Douglas Berdel spent a week as a member of the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy program designed to build leadership skills and help students pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

The program includes shuttle missions, weightlessness training, simulated jet-fighter pilot training, scenario-based space-walking missions, conducting DNA extraction experiments on fruit, designing, building and testing their own rockets and meeting with top scientists, engineers and former astronauts to reinforce core leadership competencies and provide them with first-hand accounts of remarkable professional experiences.

“It was a phenomenal week,” Berdel wrote in an e-mail. “I had the opportunity to work with more than 100 students from all over the U.S. as well as many different countries – Germany, England, Brazil, China, Australia, Czech Republic, India, and Italy—to name just a few. The activities were fun and a great learning experience.  We designed and built heat shields from simple materials, constructed our own rockets, extracted DNA from fruits, and participated in team building activities on the ropes course and in the flight simulators.”

The program is open to children of Honeywell employees between the ages of 16-18. Berdel’s mother is a Director of Human Resources for Honeywell Security Group in Melville and encouraged her son to apply.

“I researched the program and thought it looked interesting,” Berdel said. “What appealed to me was learning with other students from all over the world in a fun environment, focusing on leadership and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.”

Since its launch in 2010, Honeywell, in partnership with the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, has awarded more than 850 scholarships to students after a rigorous application and review processes based on academic achievement and community involvement.

Berdel said that he feels “privileged to have been chosen to receive this scholarship” and that the program “reinforced my interest to study engineering or potentially a military pilot through one of the United States Service Academies.” 

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