Wylie High Junior’s Dream Takes Flight with Prestigious NASA Scholars Program

What started as a casual overnight visit to NASA became the spark that launched Wylie High junior Delaney Joynt’s journey into NASA's prestigious High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) program for high school juniors.

“I’ve always wondered why,” Joynt said as she talked about her fascination with the stars and space. That curiosity drove her to apply for one of NASA’s most selective learning experiences.

Joynt is one of just 700 students from across the country selected to participate in NASA’s HAS program. She recently completed the first phase of HAS, an intensive series of five online STEM modules. She excelled, earning an impressive 98.66% on her module work and an invitation to phase two--Moonshot.

“The modules are very engineer-based,” Joynt said. “They gave me an insight on how NASA would work if I were to become an intern or get a career there. The program has pushed me out of my comfort zone, but I really liked it.”

One of her most memorable projects was using the coding program, Scratch, to design space-themed video games.

"I had fun messing around with Scratch,” Joynt said. “I built a Mars rover game that collected stuff. I made another video game that had to have an element like a maze in it with barriers and when you completed that, it would go into a jumping game like Flappy Bird.”

Another challenge required students to construct a capsule that mimicked NASA’s landing pods. Her design used a zipline and marshmallows as “astronauts.”

“I had to drop the capsule on a target to return the astronauts safely to Earth, and the astronauts could not move from their seats,” Joynt said. “It was successful!”

After six months of completing rigorous modules, the final project required students to design a 3D model of a “Space Base” on a planet capable of supporting 200 residents. She chose Mars.

The next phase of HAS is Moonshot, a competitive, five-day virtual summer experience Joynt will participate in June. Students will work in teams on design challenges related to mission research, guided by NASA mentors and engineers. Top-performing students from Moonshot are invited to the final phase—a residential experience at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in July.

“I really want to go,” Joynt said. “It would be an amazing opportunity and beneficial to becoming an astronomer and working for NASA.”

Balancing the program was challenging due to her busy schedule. She is also in Colorguard, taking three dual-credit classes, participating in culinary arts, and is a dedicated Girl Scout.

“Some projects took an hour, some took several hours or even days because there were so many parts,” Joynt said. “You need to get ahead while you can, especially if you are doing other school activities. It does become a lot.”

The experience not only affirmed her interest in astronomy and engineering but also helped her better understand the realities of a career at NASA.

“The NASA Scholars Program is really good to see what you’re expected of if you were to work for NASA and the challenges that you might face,” Joynt said. “Trying stuff on my own and seeing what I could do was fulfilling and gratifying.”

After she graduates next year, Joynt hopes to attend Texas A&M University.

“Their physics and engineering program is tough competition to get into,” she said. “I also did this program to figure out what it would be like--to make sure that this is what I want to do.”

Wylie ISD wishes Delaney the best of luck as she participates in Moonshot. Everyone is cheering her on and hoping she excels and advances to the third phase of the HAS program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.