From when I was young, I wanted to be an engineer. I think it’s because I was a big Star Trek fan, and the engineer, whether it was Scotty or Geordi La Forge, was the person the rest of the crew went to when they needed to solve a problem. That was the person I wanted to be. That Rensselaer would help me become that person—and play Division I hockey—was the reason I chose Rensselaer.

Today, I manage a team of about 140 people at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We’re working on 41 different flight projects and 51 different technology programs, including all of the instrumentation for the Mars 2020 mission. I’m also on the review board for the Europa Clipper mission. As someone who grew up wanting to explore space, I’m living the dream.

I think the Rensselaer-developed skill I bring to the table—and this continues to be a hallmark of the Rensselaer graduates I hire—is knowledge and thoroughness. And by that I mean a willingness to ask as many questions as you need to understand the depth of the problem you’re trying to solve.

People from different backgrounds see the world differently, and because of that, they ask different kinds of questions and tackle problems differently. The more varied the perspectives you have on a problem, the better your solutions are likely to be. That’s why the campaign’s financial aid and scholarship initiatives are so important. We can’t afford not to have women and people of color and kids from the flyover states at the table. The challenges of the future are too complex and its opportunities are too exciting for us to survive without them. The New Polytechnic is one that includes everyone with the talent to make a contribution.