Convo: Sally Ride January 13, 2006

Sally Ride, America?s first woman astronaut, will present a convocation at 10:50 a.m. Friday, Jan. 13 at the Carleton College Skinner Memorial Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

As the first American woman in space, Sally Ride changed the perception of space flight as a male-only field. In 1981 and 1982, Ride served as the communications officer for the second and third flights of the space shuttle Columbia, and in 1983 she became the first American woman to travel in space. She orbited the Earth in the space shuttle Challenger, and flew on a second shuttle mission the following year.

As Ride was preparing for her third mission in 1986, Challenger exploded, and she was appointed to the Presidential Commission assigned to investigate the accident. In 1987, Ride retired from NASA to become a science fellow at Stanford University. Two years later she was appointed director of the California Space Institute and professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, where she became committed to encouraging young women in math and science.

That led to her current post as president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company whose mission is to empower girls to explore the world of science. The organization accomplishes this by offering science camps and festivals to girls around the country, as well as a newsletter and online resources. It also sponsors a toy design competition for kids in fifth through eighth grades.

As a passionate advocate for improvements in science education, Ride has written and co-written several children?s books, including ?To Space and Back,? ?Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System? and ?The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space.?

Ride has received numerous awards, including the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the Women?s Research and Education Institute?s American Woman Award and the National Spaceflight Medal. In June 2003 Ride was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame at Kennedy Space Center.

Carleton?s Elizabeth Nason Distinguished Women Visitors Fund is the convocation sponsor. For more information and disability accommodations, call the Carleton college relations office at (507) 646-4308.