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One experience is enough to change the course of your life.

10/7/2020

One of the moments that took me to where I am now was when the head of my high school came to the classroom all excited talking about AEXA´s IMIRP program.

They mentioned the general aspects and told us that if we were interested in participating we should go to their office. We had a conference with Alejandra Rocha, where she told us that we could get a scholarship to participate although we had less than a week to prepare, get the flights, and finish paying for the program that started in two weeks.

To be honest, I thought my parents would not agree because it was so sudden and involved leaving for another country for a week with strangers, but somehow, I got them in.

The program was amazing. We visited the most important places related to the health sector in Houston and had conversations with people who can communicate problems that are seen every day like cancer, which needs other people to have in places with very few resources, heart problems, epidemiological problems, among others.

Dafne Maribel Hernandez Herrera

Student of the Bachelor of Medicine at the University of
Quintana Roo.
First place winner of the IMIRP 2018.
Winner of first place in the IASP 2019 program.
Winner of the 2019 Lasallian Excellence Award.

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In the same talks, you learn different technological strategies that are being developed to reduce these problems, make you feel excited about projects, and motivate you to want to do something yourself to benefit those who need it most.

The characteristic challenge of this program is to propose an innovative prototype by teams that help prevent, diagnose or treat a designated disease in a specific population with a limited budget.

As a team, we proposed the NS1 TEST, a manufactured devise in 3D printers with RPET, whose objective is to detect dengue in a fast, cheap, and accessible way for all, since this disease is more frequent in populations with scarce resources. We managed to get the first place, and the award ceremony was in a NASA room, as the IASP program was being carried out. Before participating in IMIRP I was not sure if I wanted to study the career of QFB of Medicine, at the end of the tour we did and the talk we were given in the Level 4 laboratory in Galveston, I was determined to study Medicine.

Having the opportunity to live with my IASP partners was very impressive by what I saw in this and the activities that it carried out, but I did not feel it, though it led me to a very different area, aerospace.

The aerospace part is something that many at some point in their lives dream of, but very few manage to even approach it. It was something of another level that only extraordinary people managed to achieve.

I had the opportunity to participate in the first edition of the IASP STEM X GIRLS 2019 program, it was an amazing experience, I went to an astronaut conference, had the opportunity to fly a plane, and entered an air cabin in which parachuting is simulated; Also I had the opportunity to see a launch of Space X, which is one of the most beautiful experiences I have lived, the sound and vibration are something unimaginable, as well as participated for three days in the camp of the Kennedy Space Center where we experienced various activities of the training carried out by the astronauts.

In this program, there was also a challenge, we needed to develop a feasible proposal for the implementation of a new material that could be used in the next missions to the Moon. My team won this challenge with the material we call Moonfone and we are currently very excited because in August we will have the opportunity to send a sample of this material to the New Materials Experimentation Module (MISSE) in a facility outside the International Space Station.

After having participated in both programs, I can honestly tell you that they are worth trying, manage to make you see that anything is possible as long as you fight for it, and believe in yourself because we are all just too scared to see what we are capable of.

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For having participated in these programs I was given recognition for LASALLIAN EXCELLENCE 2019, something I never really imagined being able to obtain, I am currently thinking about the possibility of studying the specialty of aerospace medicine because they helped me to see that multidisciplinarity is something that has no borders and that if you love two or more things why not try to put them together in one and make that your way.