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From Tree Farm to the Stars: Meet Patrick Harper, Veteran and Master’s Student in Geology and Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines
November marks a special time to honor and thank those who have served our country. This Veterans Month, we're dedicating our newsletter to spotlight the incredible stories of our veterans, their sacrifices, and their enduring impact on our communities.
Meet Patrick Harper, a Master's student in Geology and Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines.
What is your personal/professional story?
I grew up on a small tree farm in Ellicott, Colorado, with my two brothers. My family has always been very close-knit, even when separated by oceans. From a very young age, science and nature interested me, and my parents encouraged this interest by stargazing with me or taking me fossil hunting. This passion has propelled me toward the goal of becoming an astronaut since I was six. Unfortunately, school was not my strong suit, and my academic performance was quite subpar.
After graduating high school, I spent two years attending community college taking classes, but my performance did not really improve from high school. At my mom and dad's urging, I looked at other paths to take a break from school and found myself enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. I wanted to challenge myself still, and signed up to be a Cryptologic Language Analyst - essentially a translator.
This landed me at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, where I became fluent in Arabic during a very intensive 64-week course where our attrition rate was 65%. From there, I spent the next four years serving as an intelligence analyst at NSA, Georgia.
At the end of my 6-year term in 2021, I returned home to Colorado to utilize my GI Bill to pursue a bachelor's degree in Geology, which I just earned in August. I am now a dual master's student in Geology and Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines. I am hoping to continue on the path of becoming an astronaut by following this MS program with a PhD.
What key moments in your life led you to where you are today?
My parents moved my younger brother and I to Kuwait in 2008. Being a simple country boy transplanted into a Gulf nation was quite the culture shock and taught me a lot about being flexible and open-minded. It also helped me unlearn a lot of prejudices that were quite prevalent in American culture at the time.
I don't know that there really are any major key moments that have led me to this point. Small moments throughout my life all sum up to where I am today. Losses, love, my mom and dad making it to every single baseball game - those all have pushed me to reach the level I am at and will continue to propel me into the future.
Where does your passion to serve come from?
There is a long tradition of service on both sides of my family. On my father's side, there have been Harpers serving since the Revolutionary War. My paternal grandfather's whole family served during WWII, and he continued his service in the CIA for 25 years. I am a firm believer in giving back to humanity whenever able, and being a public servant (hopefully one day as an astronaut) and scientist is how I would like to manifest that belief.
How can GlobalMindED help you reach your goals?
With the extensive community of GlobalMindED, I hope to build a network of like-minded individuals who care about our world and can support each other. I hope to attend their conference in 2025 and meet other students and educators who are passionate about their fields. I hope to find a collaborative group of peers and further develop my own leadership skills as a scientist, as a student, and as a person.
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