A Stargazing Scholarship for Calvin Student

April 21, 2008 == CALVIN STORIES

Summary: A Calvin student with a passion for stargazing has parlayed that
interest into a prestigious national scholarship.

Full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/goldwater-haegert.htm

Growing up a missionary kid in Gambia, West Africa, Melissa Haegert had a
passion for stargazing.

"The stars there are amazing. It's a lower latitude, and you can see some of
the stars you can't see here," Haegert said. "Sometimes I'd climb a tree, and
sometimes I'd climb up on my roof. All I had in Gambia for studying astronomy
was a pair of binoculars and several books and a very darkened night sky."

A couple of years ago Haegert, a physics and astronomy major who goes by
Lissa, traded in that rudimentary equipment and the amazing West African stars
for the astronomy facilities at Calvin College, where, in her sophomore year,
she has earned a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship from the Barry M. Goldwater
Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.

Haegert and Molnar are studying the Flora asteroid family, the result of a
collision of two large asteroids. Studying the Flora family is important,
Haegert said, because about 35 percent of the asteroids that have hit the earth
are Floras. For this project, Haegert and Molnar used a telescope stationed in
Rehoboth, New Mexico—a twin to Calvin's telescope and operated via remote
control—because of the darkness of the sky there. They have published three
papers on their research and are working on a fourth.

Haegert feels privileged for the opportunity to study with Molnar.

"I think an amazing thing about Calvin College is that in the fall of my first
semester here, as a freshman," she said, "I could get involved in asteroid
studies." After Calvin, she plans to pursue a doctoral degree in astronomy, in
solar system astronomy and cosmology.

She was playing cards with her sister and a friend when she learned about the
Goldwater honor.

"I read my e-mail and plastered my hands over my mouth, unable to speak, while
my sister read over my shoulder," she said. "The next day, I snuck down and hid
a note in the breakfast rolls for my parents to find out."

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Received on Mon Apr 21 13:55:39 2008