LITTLE ROCK – When undergraduate students from Arkansas Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation assembled recently, what they did not expect to see was someone who could not.
Marco Midon, lead ground station systems engineer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was born prematurely in a rural hospital in Embudo, New Mexico, where he and his twin brother Raul were blinded as infants after spending time in an incubator without adequate eye protection.
Being blind hasn’t stopped Midon from reaching his goals.
The NASA engineer was a presenter at the Embassy Suites Hotel for a luncheon that would begin the Spring Research Conference for ARK-LSAMP students.
Midon is responsible for ground breaking technology in communications such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the highest data collection project that NASA has ever had, generating 1 TB per day; and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) which has created the most complete map ever done of the moon.
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He is able to get his work done using Job Access with Speech (JAWS), a computer program that provides persons who are blind and visually impaired with access to many widely used software applications and the Internet, e-mail, word processors, spreadsheets, web browsers, contract management software and more.
Speaking regularly with space stations from his home, Midon is no stranger to performing the impossible and emphasized the importance of being creative and trying something that has never been done before.
“I think this is the reason I have this job,” Midon said. “As a blind person, I have to try things that may not work all the time.”
Emphatic about radio waves and communications, Midon stressed that passion was important in achieving success and challenged students to do work beyond the classroom to become the best.
“Being good at what you do helps,” Midon said. “You have to do it more than just at school.”
“It’s really important to not be afraid to take a chance. But you can only do it if you have the knowledge behind you,” he said.
Midon was speaking at a meeting for students in ARK-LSAMP, a collaborative alliance of eight institutions with a shared interest to increase the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates in Arkansas who go on to careers in STEM disciplines.
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is the lead institution in the alliance which also includes Arkansas State University, Philander Smith College, Pulaski Technical College, Southeast Arkansas College, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
For more information about Arkansas LSAMP, contact Anissa Buckner, project director for ARK-LSAMP at 575-7113.
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Tisha Arnold is a public information official at UAPB.