Rhiannon Diaz

Spidernaut

Howdy! My name is Rhiannon Diaz and I am the proudest member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie class of 2009! Whoop! I am currently a senior double majoring in Finance and Management, and I am originally from Houston, TX.

Work - Tour #1

During my first tour, I worked in the Projects Procurement Office. Don't know what that means? Don't worry, neither did I! Simply put, I purchased products and services for our engineers at JSC.

Since I supported the Engineering Directorate, I was able to purchase things like hardware for the Regolith Oxygen Extraction Test Program, solid-state power controllers for the RESOLVE project, and MARK III Spacesuit hardware to name a few. I really enjoyed working on purchase orders, because you get a chance to see what is going on around the center. You are able to build relationships with the technical people as well as with the vendors we support.

When I wasn't busy spending NASA's money, I completed a monthly analysis for one of our large contracts - which is not nearly as hard as it sounds. I was able to work specifically with the numbers of our contract, see where all of our funding is going, how much we have spent to date, calculate the burn rate, etc. You know, stuff that us Finance majors like to do! Overall, I really enjoyed my tour in Procurement. It was definitely a good start to see how NASA's business side works. After all, we're not ALL engineers here!

Work - Tour #2

Currently, I am working my second tour as a Contract Specialist in the Space Station Procurement Office. I am working with some of the foreign contracts including: the European Space Agency (ESA), the Russian Space Agency (RSA), Energia, and the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) located in Star City, Russia.

Shuttle Mock-up

In this office I was afforded the opportunity to apply the procurement skills I learned in the Projects Procurement Office to quickly pick up the policies and procedures of the Space Station Procurement Office. Although both offices are procurement offices, they are very different in terms of function and purpose of the organization.

During my tour so far, I have worked on a $27.5 million contract extension, funding modifications, and many other support tasks for our foreign contracts.

If you have the opportunity to work in the Space Station Procurement Office as a business student, I would say take it! There is so much interaction with people all over the JSC site as well as with Headquarters. There are a lot of specific terms and conditions that make the foreign contracts so unique and interesting to work on. For me, the telecons with the Russians and the Europeans were very fascinating as well. Although we had many of our telecons at 7:30am to make up for the time difference, the interpreters and the people leading the meeting make them very interesting meetings to attend. It has been a great learning experience working in this office!

Work - Tour #3

My next tour is scheduled for Fall 2008 where I will be working on the resources side of JSC as a budget analyst. That's another great thing about the co-op program. you get to move to a different organization each time you are here. This not only gives you a great opportunity to see a wide variety of job opportunities at NASA, but you can see where you fit in the best as well!

Me landing the shuttle!

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Aside from daily work, the co-ops also get many opportunities to tour the center and hear from many people. This semester we have been able to tour the Mission Control Center, the NBL, the Food Lab, Robonaut, and so many other places! We also heard from people such as Gene Kranz, flight director of Apollo 13, and astronauts Mark Kelly and Piers Sellers.

So, if you're afraid of coming to a new city alone, don't be! There's usually about 30-40 other co-ops here each semester. The social life outside of work is quite crazy -- there is always something to do! We have something for everyone from softball and soccer to volleyball teams for the athletes of the group. We also organize trips to skydive, Mardi Gras, Big Bend, and a lot of other weekend trips. There are grill-outs, movie nights, theme parties, beach parties, and a lot of other social activities. The Houston Astros and the Boardwalk in Kemah are pretty popular as well! However, I would say the best part of the JSC area is that the beach is only 30 minutes away! So don't worry, you will never be bored!

Overall, the co-op experience has been a good one so far. Yes, it does delay your graduation, but it's well worth it! Not only does it give you a break from school for a semester (which is never a bad thing), but the work experience you take away is priceless!

The Houston Astros came to JSC!

Feeding the stingrays in Kemah!

Minute Maid Park