Amritsar girl bags free trip to NASA

GS PAUL

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 25

She is just 16 and is looking forward to flying to the John F Kennedy Space Centre in the US, after getting an invitation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Meet Amritsar’s Hissaa, a Class X student of DAV Public School, who got the rare offer after she topped the International Space Olympiad (ISO) 2020. She scored 78.75 marks, obtained collectively in the preliminary, intermediate and final test.

What is surprising is the fact that not only is she the first student from India to secure this position in the senior category, but also the one to achieve it with her own hard work, without any coaching.

“It was a dream come true when I got the official confirmation. I aim to be an astrophysicist. I competed with students from Singapore and Switzerland, besides different parts of India, and bagged the first place,” said Hissaa.

“I got myself registered in September 2019, but due to Covid-19 restrictions, the first-round examination was pushed to January, followed by the second phase being conducted in June and the final in August. I am eagerly waiting for the situation to get favourable so that I could visit my dream destination, the NASA centre,” she maintained.

Hissa credited her father Savrajinder Pal Singh, an engineer with the MC, Amritsar, and her mother Kamalpreet Kaur, an English teacher in a government school, for her success.

“Having an engineering background, my father taught me the nuances of science and my mother made sure that I get the best of knowledge in astronomy,” she added.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.