Weekly roundup: Segerstrom students visit Virgin Galactic site, schools take on Kindness Challenge, and more

A group of students from Segerstrom High School in Santa Ana recently toured Virgin Galactic’s facilities and hangar where the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo vehicles are being built.

Virgin Galactic's Spaceship 2 flies through the sky
Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship Two flies through the sky. (Courtesy of MarsScientific.com)

The 45 students travelled last month to the Mojave Desert site that’s now at the forefront of human space travel. The visit, chronicled here, was offered by Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides after Segerstrom students attended the Aerospace Workforce Development Symposium in September at UC Irvine.

The tour was organized as part of a partnership between OC Pathways and Base 11.

On the tour, students got up close with innovative technologies like wings that fold mid-flight and cardboard-like composite material used to construct spacecraft. They also saw flight simulators that pilots use to train.

“From the flight simulator to watching the making of the new spaceships to actually seeing the spaceship and mothership — all wow!” Shadi, a senior said.

Many of the students walked away inspired that they, too, could work for a leading-edge company like Virgin if they work hard enough.

Here are a few more education stories from across Orange County for the week ending Jan. 26.

  • Scores schools across Orange County and throughout the state are taking part in the Great Kindness Challenge this week. Created by the nonprofit group Kids for Peace, the Great Kindness Challenge is a national program devoted to capturing as many acts of kindness as possible in a single week.

Follow the latest schools news by bookmarking newsroom.ocde.us.