Filipino Girl Finds Math Hard Now Works As NASA Engineer

Josephine Santiago-Bond came from a family of scientists yet as a child she never saw herself becoming one. Back then, all she knew was that she would finish her studies, find a job, and try to earn to afford her needs and wants. However, life has a different plan for her.

She studied at the Philippine Science High School and took more Science and Math subjects than the average high school student. However, she had no intention of taking up an engineering course in college, until an older schoolmate convinced her into taking her chance at the University of the Philippines’ Electronics and Communications Engineering Program.

According to Josephine, her Math subjects ‘got exponentially difficult’ and she had to crawl her way through some of the courses. However, she is no quitter. She practiced solving Math and Engineering problems until she was either confident enough to take the test or ran out of review time. Amidst countless sleepless nights, her persistence eventually paid off.

After her college graduation, she moved to the United States and took up her Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University. In 2003, she got a summer job at the John F. Kennedy Space Center. The internship soon turned into a graduate cooperative internship, where she went into alternate summers of studying and working for the space center until she graduated in 2005.

Now, the Pinay Engineer heads the agency’s Advanced Engineering Development Branch. As such, she is responsible for supplying engineering support to research and technology development projects. Her job is to choose brilliant people to work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Her words of advice? Josephine encourages everyone to dream big dreams and to explore challenging opportunities along the way, push your limits, get out of your comfort zone, and pick tasks that are harder than what you are used to.