The first time Matthew Marquez watched Matt Damon growing potatoes on Mars in “The Martian,” he knew he wanted a career at NASA.
“I’ve always been into science and I wanted to find a way to connect it to agriculture,” he says. “The first time I saw the movie, I thought, Wow, this is the connection right there; that’s what I want.”
Marquez took one giant step toward his goal at the 2019 national FFA convention. The Detroit, Texas, native traveled to Indianapolis with other Detroit FFA members. A representative from the National FFA Foundation overheard a lunchtime conversation in which Marquez described his passion for space, science and agriculture, and arranged for him to meet NASA Administrator James Bridenstine during the convention.
“I told him, ‘My whole dream is to work for NASA and wear that blue polo every day and make a difference through science and agriculture,’” he recalls. “It was just a case of meeting the right people and communicating what I want to do.”
During the 15-minute conversation, Bridenstine talked about the importance of a geographic information system (GIS), a computer data and mapping system, and advised Marquez to major in earth sciences; he also shared some unexpected advice.
He said, ‘It’s OK to not know what you’re going to do. You can change your vision,’” Marquez says. “I’ve carried that with me ever since.”
Although it’s been three years since their conversation, Marquez still has the notes on his phone and admits that the meeting had a big impact on his life.
“We only spoke for 15 minutes, but that has characterized basically all of my choices since then,” he says. “The wisdom and the inspiration that I got from that meeting was absolutely insane.”
Marquez is a junior at Texas A&M University. He’s majoring in geology, serves as the B-Battery Wildmen first sergeant in the Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets and plays bass drum in the Fightin’ Texas Aggie band. He’s researching internships at NASA and looking for other ways to serve — and he credits his time in FFA for putting him on the right path to achieving his dream.
“FFA absolutely served its purpose and connected me with the right people,” Marquez says. “I feel like through hard work and connections … there’s some sort of service-oriented career for me, and I know that it lies within leadership and science and agriculture.”
