Benjamin Eubank, a student at Surry Community College in Dobson, has been selected to travel to Marshall Space Flight Center this fall to participate in a three-day on-site event.

He is one of 40 community and junior college students from across the nation chosen to be part of the National Community College Aerospace Scholars project. Participants will have the opportunity to apply what they have learned during the year to work with NASA engineers.

The program is a three-day on-site event at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and offers students the chance to interact with each other as they learn more about careers in science and engineering. While at NASA, students form teams and establish fictional companies interested in Mars exploration. Each company is responsible for developing a prototype rover, designing a line drawing of the rover, and forming the company infrastructure including budget, communications, and presentations.

The on-site experience at NASA includes a tour of facilities and briefings by noted NASA employees.

National Community College Aerospace Scholars is a project based on Texas Community College Aerospace Scholars, originally created by the state of Texas in partnership with NASA and the Texas educational community. Both projects are designed to encourage community and junior college students to enter careers in science and engineering and ultimately join the nation’s highly technical workforce.