HMC Senior Receives Astronaut Scholarship

Bryan Teague HM ’10 received a $10,000 check on Oct. 1 from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation during a ceremony held in Galileo Hall.The scholarship is awarded by nomination only and just 19 schools in the United States have been selected to participate.Although the foundation does not guarantee a selection from each school, HMC has had a scholarship winner every year since the program’s inception.The selection process begins with a call for nominations from each faculty member in every department. A list of ten to 15 students is then sent to a fellowships committee, who narrows it down to six potential candidates. Following a final electronic application process, two students are nominated to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which makes the final selection for the institution.“The committee selects the most extraordinary students who are most well-rounded,” said Holly Hauck, assistant to the dean of faculty, who also helped coordinate the selection process. “They look at anything that stands out in the student’s application, such as innovative research or a creative endeavor.”During his time at HMC, Teague has won a Davis award for a freshman design class, completed a clinic design project, and worked in the field of metallurgy, helping to initiate a project designing a new type of metallic glass.At the presentation, Apollo astronaut Walt Cunningham presented the check to Teague and delivered a speech on risk-taking and initiative.“Frontiers are always there—in science, medicine, and even business,” Cunningham said. “The trick is locating those frontiers, and that takes vision, imagination. It takes individuals willing to search for excellence and the boundaries of our knowledge. It takes individuals willing to accept a challenge and who are prepared to pay the price—not cautious naysayers.”In addition to the $10,000, scholarship recipients get the chance to meet with scholarship alumni during a school-funded trip to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Induction in Florida in the spring.“Money is money,” Hauk said. “But what I think is more valuable is the opportunity that the scholar has to make connections with other scholars, alumni, and the astronauts themselves.”An engineering major, Teague is undecided about his post-graduate plans but has been researching several possibilities.“I’m leaning toward a job in design contracting, something where I get to work on a bunch of projects,” Teague said.