She Space International Program

An Educational Program to Advance and Empower Female Students in STEM focusing on Space Science

The goal of She Space International is to empower female students to engage with various scientific fields, and the field of space science especially. The project emphasizes the quality and development of the research process, rather than outcomes.

She Space International is a first-of-its-kind international educational program for the advancement of STEM among 14-16 year-old girls. The She Space program began in 2018 at the Earth and Planetary Image Facility at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel in memory of Devorah Blumberg. In 2019, the program was expanded internationally to include research institutions from 4 countries: Israel, Germany, Brazil, and the USA. In 2022, the program expanded and included institutions from Germany, Israel, Ivory Coast, Peru, South Korea, Spain, Togo, and the USA where TTU is the only USA representative. Notably, the SSI program has been recognized by Dr. Simonetta Di Pippo, director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and received the 2021 International Astronautical Federation's Excellence in "3G" Diversity Award.

During the project, teams of students from each country are guided and mentored by faculty and graduate students from a research group at each institution. The teams embark on a joint study through which participating students are exposed to cutting-edge academic research and are able to utilize imaging and communications collected or provided by the satellites and space agencies of their respective home countries.

The She Space International Team at Texas Tech University is the only team in the United States and is led by TTU Assistant Professor of Geosciences (Atmospheric Science Group) Dr. Karin Ardon-Dryer. The program runs from February-June each year.