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I'm Karen Whitfield. I'm a teacher and I
work with community college students at

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NASA. It's important for me to open doors
for everyone. So regardless of your age,

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or where you go to school, or where you
live, it's important for you to know that

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there's a place here at NASA for you. I
love to read. So I was an English major.

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But I also worked part-time at a daycare
and worked with kids, and I loved that. So

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I thought, you know, maybe teaching is a
way to combine some of the things that I

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love. Some of the challenges I faced were
number one being confident myself and

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believing that I could do it, and then
also being a perfectionist wanting to

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get it just right and realizing I needed
to give myself a break. It's okay. My

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biggest discovery has been I can. So
with this job, I'm equal parts excited

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and terrified every day. I go to lots of
different cities across the country, and

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I meet new faces and new students every
time. And it can be a little bit scary,

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but it's also exciting to try something
new and realize you really can do it.

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What's cool about being where I am is
realizing that I'm a small piece on a

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larger puzzle and knowing that my piece
helps the whole thing to come together.

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At the end of each of our workshops, we
ask the students to reflect, and they

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share what the program has meant to them.
And hearing their stories and hearing

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their excitement and their joy, make all of
this worthwhile. I love what I do. It's

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very unexpected. But I come to work every
day with a smile on my face and excited

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to see what's next.

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you