When Rice University student Malvika Bhardwaj asked her mentor Daniel Cohen, a Guidance, Navigation & Control (GN&C) engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, whether he had time to keep teaching interns with his busy workload, he answered, “You decide what’s important.”

In honor of National Mentoring Day on Oct. 27, Bhardwaj reflects on how Cohen’s advice and support has shaped her internship experience at Johnson.

Through NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement , interns like Bhardwaj contribute to agency projects while learning from NASA mentors and gaining technical skills and hand-on experience to build a future career in space exploration.

Bhardwaj studies computational and applied mathematics at Rice University and interns with the GN&C team, which focuses on how spacecraft determine their position and maneuver in orbit. She is developing tools to analyze thruster firings on the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle that will help NASA safely deorbit the International Space Station at the end of its operational life.…