![]() ![]() This story is not something that I would ever see made into an inspirational movie or Sylvia becoming a champion for reaching for your dreams. * She had caring teachers who helped her succeed. Sylvia learned to read and write English before she ever went to kindergarten. * Her mother was a stay-at-home mom who cared a lot about the kids and their education. But if this is the difficulty that she had to suffer through in life, then it's not too bad. Her feelings were a bit hurt because her teachers thought she was behind in her education given she came from a poorer neighborhood. * Her house had air conditioner and was in a middle-class neighborhood with a good school. Just having college-educated parents pretty much help set your path the moment you're born. * Her father graduated from college, and was a chemist who worked at a University and later on at a laboratory that paid pretty well. Sylvia's path was really good unless she suffered from a terrible illness like her sister Laura did or she just gave up and didn't try. But this book, from its title and description, makes it seem like it's a guide for overcoming the hardships of life to reach for your dreams no matter the odds. She then went on to become a rocket scientist at the Jet Propulsion Labs, where she worked on the Voyager mission's fly-by of Jupiter and its moons and the Solar Polar/Probe missions.Now, I know being a rocket scientist takes great effort, hard work, discipline and study. In high school she set her sights on becoming an industrial engineer and earned a scholarship to New Mexico State. While working on her Girl Scout Science badge, Sylvia built a model rocket and began to see new possibilities for her future. ![]() As one of the few Latino students in the school, she more often than not felt isolated and unwelcome - until she met another girl named Sylvia who was a Brownie and who invited her to join the troop. That meant leaving their close-knit Spanish-speaking neighborhood when Sylvia was in second grade and moving to a new neighborhood with better schools. Sylvia's father was a chemist with a passion for books and libraries, and her mother, who had immigrated from Mexico and struggled early on to learn English, was determined that her children get the best education possible. But she did have a few things working for her. She was raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the 1960s and '70s - a time when girls who wanted to become engineers or scientists were easily dismissed and the idea that a Latina girl might aspire to such things was almost inconceivable. Sylvia Acevedo's PATH TO THE STARS was not an easy one. Acevedo is currently the CEO of the Girls Scouts of the USA. Readers may be shocked when Acevedo reveals late in the story that her father sometimes hit his wife and children and describes the time he repeatedly hit her with a belt. She writes at length about her years as a Brownie and then a Girl Scout and credits the organization with giving her the confidence and encouragement she needed to fulfill her dream of going to college and becoming an engineer. While her parents put a high value on education, it was still a time when expectations for girls centered around marriage and family rather than career. Acevedo describes growing up first in a close-knit Latino community filled with extended family and then in a neighborhood and school where she was one of the few Latino students and she struggled to fit in. Parents need to know that Sylvia Acevedo's memoir, A Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist, chronicles her life from a childhood in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the 1960s and '70s to becoming one of the few female rocket scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ![]()
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