By Camas Frank

In his talk to inspire the 160 high-schoolers attending Cal Poly’s Engineering Possibilities in College (EPIC) summer camp July 16, Astronaut Victor Glover admitted that he likes to put himself in impossible situations, “then try to fight his way out of it.”
It was part of the “Grit” in the three core principles he told the students would serve them well on the path to success to, “Be a gritty…good person… and a life long learner.”
The 1999 Cal Poly engineering graduate didn’t directly evoke the school’s “learn by doing” motto while he was on stage, but he demonstrated the traits he espoused and told the campers enough about his background to start them thinking. Through supportive teachers in elementary and middle school, independent study of mathematics in high school and “getting his butt kicked” in his first year at Cal Poly he charted a course, then showed where it’s led so far.
“I left blood sweat and tears here at Cal Poly,” he said, adding that it was literally as he bust his face on the mat during his first wrestling match at the college. “I met my wife here, I left my heart here and this place is still part of our family.”
During his senior and “super-senior year” Glover spent time working on the “be a good person” portion of his credo, winning an award from then SLO Mayor Allen Settle for a project dealing with sexual assault prevention.
Glover also joined the U.S. Navy while he was at the university and eventually rose to the rank of Lt. Commander, earned his wings as a Naval Aviator and flew 24 combat missions in Iraq.
His hour-long talk was a an entertaining and engaging show in the fashion of an school assembly but it was the more than an hour of crowd interactions, picture taking and fielding questions afterwards that was the real spectacle. For some, his demonstration of encyclopedic knowledge, dispensing career advice to students on subjects ranging from leadership in the armed forces to the wasted human capitol of the country’s criminal justice system, would have been an impossible task.
However, while Glover said he felt his nerves on stage, the rapid fire one-on-one wasn’t a challenge. Life with four daughters keeps him always in ‘on-mode.’ In fact the talk and the half a day preceding it that he spent with the students was Glover’s vacation time, after completing training and being inducted as an official astronaut only eight days before.
A little over two years ago, when he got the call to begin training as a modern day explorer, Glover was serving his country still, as a Navy Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Congress.
“You know who aren’t represented enough in Congress?” he asked his audience during the talk, with a slide show displaying pictures of Glover meeting with civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis and Senator John McCain,  “aside from people who’ve served in the armed forces its you guys, scientists, and engineers. It’s not about politics but informing a base of knowledge for leadership.”
That was a hard job for him to leave, Glover said, but he added while advising students in the hallway, “The thing about us  [NASA] it that we’ll really want you after you’re already working hard in a career you love. It’s not going to happen if you make your only goal becoming an astronaut.”
What it all boils down to, for a man that’s gone from flying combat missions to training for missions of exploration, from being buoyed by the faith of a fifth grade teacher who thought a boy could channel curiosity and aptitude into a great career, is that there is great hope in the future.
“I’m recruiting right now. You guys are going to discover the technology that will send us to Mars,” he said. “My generation is stuck with what we have, but it’s up to start training.”
Outside, he added that he’s confident in the future, in part because things are moving in the right direction with the current and next generation.  There’s willingness among the current students at Cal Poly, as well as the 10th and 11th graders exploring their prospects, to tackle bigger problems like climate change, or embrace diversity on campus.
“Look, NASA is all about getting people to look at the big picture,” Climate change is real. We’re in the middle of a cycle in the life of this planet. Humans have an effect but we need to understand what’s going on and what we can change.”
The big picture also includes the cross section of humanity that will be exploring the cosmos. Glover’s graduating class of eight new astronauts is the first to include a parity of four men and four women, but gender and ethnic diversity weren’t the only measurements he spoke with students about. Learning another language, one of the things he’s had to manage as part of training for the International Space Station, was a big part of being a lifelong learner and a better person.
When asked how he’d seen the Cal Poly community embrace that ethic, he pointed out that despite statewide challenges over the years, the local student community rallied to spend their own money on promoting diversity and tolerance.
“I’ve always been involved with causes that are bigger than myself,” he said about his personal journey, “What I’m doing now this, this is for my wife and kids. My kids think it’s normal that I talk about space and going to Mars but I can’t believe it. It still makes me nervous. The future is bigger than all of us.”
To inquire about the EPIC summer camp program at Cal Poly, contact EPIC director Teana Fredeen at .