As a result of their hard work, 10 students, five teachers, two administrators, and several members of the GAVRT team were honored with a personal invitation from Dr. Haldemann to attend the event surrounding the landing of the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity. The students included 5th graders Jimmy Kollar, Kevin Garcia, James Holloway, and Jessica Munoz from Northridge Magnet School in Moreno Valley, CA, along with principal Bruce Hemlock and teachers Beth Sandez and Charlotte Groty; 5th graders Christine Sims and Sam Johnson, 6th graders David Riddle and Emily Rizzo, and 9th grader Micah Nyhoff from the Academy for Academic Excellence in Apple Valley, CA, along with teacher Meg Deppe and principal Nancy MacLaren; and 5th grader James LeFlang from Don Benito Fundamental School in Pasadena, CA. Teacher Bob Arii from Maranatha Christian School in San Diego, CA also attended the event.

The general consensus among all of the students in attendance was that they were very excited and honored to have been included in such an important event. It was also a tremendous learning opportunity for each of them – in more ways than one. As Christins Sims (5th grader from AAE) said, “I’m so thankful and so lucky that I was able to be part of space history. It was definitely a big OPPORTUNITY!”.