At 2 years old, Joey Vars picked up his first toy rockets, and never put them down.
His love for space “just sort of happened” when his parents noticed him playing with the space toys more than the Tonka trucks and Hot Wheels cars, and continued to supply him with more space related books and toys.
Now 20, Vars is an intern in charge of the NASA History Office’s social media in Washington D.C. He writes posts for the office’s Twitter, Facebook and Flickr pages.
Though it wasn’t until his freshman year of college that Vars chose to major in history, he says he has always been fascinated with history and space. He knew he wanted to get into the space program somehow, but math was not his strongest subject.
Vars found out about the internship opportunity by accident when he clicked on a link to Twitter, when he meant to click on Tumblr. He saw the tweet from the history office about accepting applications and thought, “Why not?”
Since submitting his resume and writing samples, and being accepted for the internship, Vars feels fortunate for the opportunity he has been given and never expected to be where he is now.
“Six months ago, I thought I would be still sitting in an SG meeting thinking about all the homework I had to do,” he said. “Working for NASA didn’t even cross my mind.”
Since starting his internship on Aug. 19, Vars has been to nine launches. One launch sent seven individuals to space, including John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Vars also attended the launch of the most recent Mars rover and various rocket launches.
He covered four of these launches for the history office’s social media sites.
A typical day for Vars starts at 6:31 a.m. when his alarm goes off. He catches a bus and the metro into downtown Washington D.C. by 8:15 a.m. His first meeting, called a “tag-up,” starts 15 minutes later, where the office team discusses what is on the agenda for the day.
The rest of his day is spent at his desk working on Facebook and Twitter posts. He has also been working on comprising information for an infographic to be made in November, celebrating the 15th anniversary of the first module of the International Space Station’s launch.
Vars usually finishes his day around 4:30 p.m. Sometimes he catches the metro back to the place he stays at with family friends. Other times, he hangs around town, visiting the monuments or browsing the Smithsonian museum collections.
For Vars, it’s not just about being close to high technology or being able to say, “I work for NASA.” It’s about being in an all-space environment.
“The best part is sitting there and hearing what people are discussing,” he said.
“Everything I overhear is space related. New rockets. New launches.”
Interning in a NASA office is different from other jobs Vars has had, including working for the Dali Museum last semester for eight months. He is glad to not be treated like just some young intern but as an actual employee. Though he hasn’t met anyone famous yet, he has crossed paths with some astronauts in the elevators who now hold managerial positions.
Leaving Florida wasn’t exactly hard for Vars to do, but leaving behind friends and family was tougher than expected. His past coworkers from the Dali were among the hardest to say goodbye to, especially since they supplied him with encouragement and advice during his application process.
“They were all extremely supportive and were good references,” he said.
Vars isn’t missing Florida quite yet. After experiencing NASA, campus life isn’t so appealing to him anymore.
He is happy in his “whole new world” with the changing fall weather. He noted that it was cold enough the past week to wear his Tampa Bay Rowdies scarf outside.
Though his internship is unpaid, Vars is getting school credit for his time in Washington D.C. Everything else he needs is paid out of his own pocket.
Vars is unsure what he wants to do after his internship ends in December, but he said part of him hopes to get a job Washington D.C. If he comes back to Florida to finish his degree, he wants to look into minoring in mass communications so he can work for the NASA public relations office.
Vars said he wants to remain on the communications and history side of NASA “until I get better at math.” He is already looking into graduate schools like George Washington University for aerospace technology and other schools for space policies.
He may not be a rocket scientist or astronaut yet, but Vars is living his childhood dream.
“My NASA badge means more to me than a Heisman trophy does to a football player,” he said.
For now, Vars is enjoying his time researching and posting for the history department and is looking forward to the possibility of meeting Bill Nye (the science guy) in November.
To see what Vars has been up to, like the NASA History Office page at facebook.com/NASAHistoryOffice, follow twitter.com/NASAhistory. He also has a personal blog on Tumblr at for-all-mankind.tumblr.com.
