Last week, Nagin Cox, an engineer from space agency NASA, gave an inspirational speech about her work to students at Sarah Bonnell School, in Deanery Road, Stratford.

Her visit was organised in co-operation with the East London Business Alliance and the US Embassy.

Danielle Foley, a Year 10 student at the school, has kindly written an article about the experience for Press Gang.

“On Wednesday 17th April 2013, Nagin Cox an engineer from NASA visited my school, Sarah Bonnell.

I was chosen, as well as my friends Fahima, Lara, Tyler and Sameena, to be Nagin’s guides, which turned out to be an unforgettable experience.

It was an honour to meet someone who works on NASA and especially on Curiosity, the rover that is currently on Mars.

We were all stunned when she said that Curiosity was the size of a Mini Cooper, which is pretty amazing!

She did a talk to all the Year 10 students and explained to us about her work life and how the stages of investigating other planets works and also how they get rovers to the planets. It was interesting information.

Many of the students got a chance to ask questions and I was awestruck and amazed by her answers and I know that many other students felt the same.

Nagin’s visit has made many of us become interested in planetary science and robotics now!

I think that from this whole experience, I learnt to always pursue my dreams no matter what it takes and that even my wildest ambitions can be followed.

I also learnt a lot of stuff about science, robotics and NASA. I think Nagin is such a great inspiration simply because she has done so much and has never let anything sway her away from what she really wanted to do.

I definitely enjoyed her visit and a big thank you to the people that accompanied her because they were great too.

I’m really glad we had the chance to have her come to our school - it was a rare opportunity!”

Danielle Foley 10B

If teachers or students would like to submit an article for Press Gang or let us know about events at school, email melissa.york@archant.co.uk.