Help me go to Space School!

Hello! My name is Riley Graveston-Harris and I’m looking for some help to advance my passion for space!

I have been given the opportunity to attend a 14-day educational expedition to the USA in December this year, with CASE Space School. During this time a small group of students from my school will spend a week in Houston, Texas learning about space exploration, visiting the NASA Johnson Space Center and RICE University where John F. Kennedy gave his famous “We choose to go to the Moon” speech. The second week is spent in Huntsville, Alabama at the US Space and Rocket Centre where we stay in a real astronaut training facility.

During this time will be participating in fun educational activities, such as performing a realistic space mission simulation, experiencing the high-tech training machines astronauts use, undertaking forensic analysis and learning more about marine biology and ecology. I will also have the chance to meet real NASA astronauts, scientists and engineers and ask them questions about what they do.

I am currently 13 years old (14 this August). My favourite subjects at school are maths (algebra is my favourite!), science (physics and astronomy) and computer science (coding and engineering). I have attended the Young Astronomers group at the Auckland Stardome Observatory for two years and even made mum take me out at 1 am in the morning to witness the super-blue-blood-moon (A once in 150 years occurrence!)

The opportunity will not be without challenges including being away from my family, and the fact that I have ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). This means I struggle with things like working as a team, detecting social cues and emotions. However, I believe this trip could vastly help improve my social skills and teamwork as well as enable me to learn more about my passions. I am also hoping to use some of this experience towards achieving the Bronze level Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award which I am undertaking in the second half of this year.

I am starting to fundraise and work (please let me know if you have any jobs I can do!) to help cover the costs of attending. Just a small donation can help me to work towards achieving my goal of attending this amazing opportunity.