NASA研究飞行员大卫·赞恩
“I want to help the Native community get better representation and show that we can help Native citizens get into aerospace engineering, mathematics, or [other STEM career fields]. And the Cherokee and Choctaw Nations are trying to do the same thing on their reservations. They have amazing education networks, so when I realized what they were doing, I wanted to help them be successful [in their efforts] so that they could inspire other tribes to do the same thing.
“When I was talking with the Principal Chiefs of the Cherokee and Choctaw Nations, they said, ‘We need to start making decisions for our people seven generations from now.’ So, they started looking at emerging technologies, and aviation [with a focus on] advanced air mobility was one of those areas. They said, ‘We want to make sure our youth are enabled and equipped to start fielding some of these areas,’ and that’s how I want to help inspire people too.
“Everyone needs an anchor from their community to motivate and inspire them to move forward. I want to be a motivational anchor for the next generation of minorities. You look at minorities, and we often don’t have as many anchors from our past to make us believe [our big dreams are possible]. Providing that legacy now and saying, ‘Hey, I can be an emotional anchor to somebody in my community or with my background [in] two, three, four generations from now,’ and building something outside of myself – that’s what motivates me. I think that’s how we inspire, by leaving those anchors in our timeline.”
— David Zahn, NASA Research Pilot, Ames Research Center
Image Credit: NASA / Dominic Hart
Interviewer: NASA / Tahira Allen
“我想帮助原住民社区获得更好的代表性，并表明我们可以帮助原住民进入航空航天工程、数学或（其他STEM职业领域）。切罗基人和乔克托人也在他们的保留地做同样的事情。他们有令人惊叹的教育网络，所以当我意识到他们在做什么时，我想帮助他们取得成功。”[在他们的努力中]，以便激励其他部落也做同样的事情。
“当我与切罗基族和乔克托族的首席酋长交谈时，他们说，‘我们需要从现在开始为我们的七代人做决定。’因此，而航空业（重点是）先进的空中机动性就是其中之一。他们说，‘我们想要确保我们的年轻人有能力和装备开始在这些领域开展工作。’这也是我想要帮助激励人们的方式。
“每个人都需要来自社区的支柱来激励和激励他们前进。我想成为下一代少数族裔的激励支柱。你看看少数族裔，我们往往没有那么多来自过去的锚来让我们相信（我们的远大梦想是可能的）。现在就提供这一遗产，并说，‘嘿，我可以在两代、三代、四代人的时间里成为我所在社区或有我背景的人的情感支柱’，并在自己之外建立一些东西——这就是我的动力。我认为这就是我们的激励方式，把这些支柱留在我们的时间线上。”
–大卫·赞恩，NASA埃姆斯研究中心研究飞行员
图片来源：NASA / Dominic Hart
采访者：NASA / Tahira Allen
