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OAKLAND — Dr. Bernard Harris Jr., the first African-American astronaut to walk in space, didn't just tell the kids at Roosevelt Middle School to reach for the stars, as promised in the announcement of his upcoming visit.
Harris told them how to survive — eat, dress, move and even use the bathroom (or a diaper) — once they leave Earth and its atmosphere behind.
"If I went out without a space suit on, I would blow up," was one of his many adolescent-friendly descriptions of life in space.
Harris stopped in Oakland's San Antonio neighborhood Friday as part of an ExxonMobil-sponsored Dream Tour to encourage interest in science, math, engineering and technology. He told Roosevelt students that, like him, they could do anything they wanted, as long as they study hard.
"People are successful because they choose to be successful," he said.
Harris was born in the Houston area to a family of modest means; his parents split up when he was 6, he said, and his father had only a high school education. He said his mother, a college graduate, pushed him to consider what he wanted to do when he grew up — a goal he set when he was 13 and saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
"I said, 'I want to be an astronaut.' You know what she said to me? 'That's nice,'"‰" Harris recalled.
Harris earned a medical degree and was trained as a flight surgeon before he was selected for the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1990.
The multimedia presentation included photos of Harris and his team and a blastoff simulation, in which two students climbed into real shuttle seats and the hundreds in the audience counted down.
Afterward, Harris met with a small group of student leaders who had far more questions than time to ask them: What was going through his head as he was sitting in the space shuttle, waiting to take off? Once you're in space, what do you do? Have you ever seen a shooting star up there? Do you get motion sickness? What's the best thing and the worst thing that happened to you in space? How were you chosen for these missions? Are you ever going back to space?
"If we ever decide to go to the moon, then I'll throw my hat in the ring," he answered, noting that both of his missions went elsewhere. "Until then, I'm grounded."
Pashael Dorsey, 11, said she left his presentation inspired. "It showed students you don't have to be fancy or living rich to be successful," she said.
"I want to be a veterinarian or a scientist," she added. "And I love the universe. It's my favorite place in the world."
Read Katy Murphy's Oakland schools blog at www.ibabuzz.com/education. Follow her at Twitter.com/katymurphy.
