Path to the Stars:
My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist
by Sylvia Acevedo
Meet Sylvia Acevedo, daughter of a Papa, Texas chemist originally from Mexico and Mami, a native of Mexico who didn’t speak English. She recalls this story of her birth: Some of the babies had blond hair. Some had brown hair or no hair at all, and nearly all of them had fair skin. Only one baby had very dark hair. “That was me!” Acevedo grew up in Las Cruses, New Mexico, surrounded by a close-knit family. Young Sylvia had the desire to learn about her world and the drive to excel in a wide variety of endeavors. She credits the Girl Scouts with helping her learn to set goals and work to achieve them. From childhood she realized that she had an affinity for numbers and a curiosity to learn how things work. By the age of thirteen, she assumed the responsibility of maintaining the family vehicle, including changing the oil. In junior high school, she opted out of home economics class, choosing instead to take an additional math course. Interestingly, one of the most challenging Girl Scout badges for her to earn was the cooking badge. |
I was nine years old, living in a small desert town. And on that day I decided I would go to Stanford someday.
They'd never had a woman engineer, so they didn’t even have a bathroom for women in the test labs.
Introduce middle grade to students to the remarkable Sylvia Acevedo: a girl who had a plan, worked hard and never gave up on her dream. This inspiring memoir belongs in all libraries, classrooms, and organizations which serve young people.
My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist (English edition) is also available in Spanish: Camino a las estrellas: Mi recorrido de Girl Scout a ingeniera astronáutica This autobiography is enhanced with liberal use of personal and family photographs inserted throughout the text. The author's "Note about Girl Scouts Yesterday and Today" provides context. |