Western Aerospace Scholars (WAS) is a rigorous and competitive educational program that uses human space exploration as the mechanism to inspire and encourage participants to consider educational and career pathways in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The WAS program is divided into two components: a five-month online distance learning curriculum (developed in partnership with NASA and the University of Washington) and a six-day summer residency experience.In 2020, during the summer residency qualified students were assigned the task of collaboratively designing a future human mission to Mars. I was one of 14 scholars in the state of Montana who qualified to participate in the WAS Summer Residency. I worked as the leader of the Working There team and was responsible for experiment and equipment design as part of my team’s element of the first human mission to Mars. Additionally, I lead an engineering team that won 3 competitions in various simulation and construction challenges.