{"id":4827,"date":"2017-11-16T14:35:49","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T14:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=4827"},"modified":"2017-11-18T14:18:40","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T14:18:40","slug":"reaching-for-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=4827","title":{"rendered":"Reaching for the stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Jenna Klemkowsky first became interested in math and science when she was in elementary school in Morgantown, West Virginia, but it was during an exciting camp just two hours away at the Challenger Learning Center at Wheeling Jesuit University that she discovered her calling in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy love for STEM grew when I first went to space camp in elementary school,\u201d said Klemkowsky, doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering. \u201cJust spending that whole week immersed in the different missions and activities they involved us in with science really sparked my interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was then she knew she wanted to be an aerospace engineer.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngineering has always been my career path mainly because it\u2019s a way to apply all of that science and math, and I like having a problem and being able to solve it using real world solutions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Klemkowsky returned to Wheeling Jesuit as an undergraduate student, was a member of the university soccer team and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor\u2019s in physics. When it came time to decide on a graduate program, a university more than 700 miles away came calling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fell in love with Auburn the minute I got here,\u201d Klemkowsky said. \u201cThey flew me down here for a visit and I immediately knew this was a family built around supporting its students.\u201d<\/p>\n