Photo courtesy of Panorama High School.

Two Panorama High School students recently worked with other students from around the world in designing a space settlement at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Shekynah Haworth and Declan McCarthy attended the International Space Settlement Design Competition in late July where in just a couple of days the two of them worked in teams of about 60 people competing to create a request for proposal (RFP) for a space colony. Haworth and McCarthy qualified for the international contest after competing with a few other Panorama students at the Space Settlement Design Competition in Houston, Texas last April.

A junior, Haworth aspired to be a lawyer until attending these competitions, where she fell in love with aerospace engineering, “I think there’s just so much unknown that’s like left to explore, and you get to work with some of the smartest people in the world and discover amazing things. And there’s just so much unknown left in that field – like some of the other fields there might seem like, well you kind of like already know like you’re not always discovering something new – but with aerospace I feel like I could be helping because I mean like being an astronaut would be cool. But that’s not something that I really want to do physically, like I’m not quite capable of that, but I think it would be cool just to design.”

Haworth was the vice president of marketing and business for her Florida team, which won the overall competition. Haworth also was awarded Best Female Presenter. She plans on majoring in aerospace engineering and business administration, with the hopes of applying these competitions to real life.