Rhiannon Ross

My name is Rhiannon Ross and I am a wife and a mother of two boys; I am Native American; Cherokee and Choctaw and was raised in Cherokee County, Tahlequah Oklahoma. I went to school to Tahlequah high school and completed to graduate in 2001. after high school I pursued more education enrolling into the Indian capital technology center which was in Tahlequah. The course that I ended up taking was Cisco networking which involve me learning how to work with technology as well as build and repair computers and network routing systems. During this course I had become a mentor for other students that took the class as well as the software manager. I got into a accident which took a long time to recover from and found myself enrolling into the course for a second time eventually I finished and the course in 2005 and carried a wealth of knowledge to bring to the table. Years go by and I'm not able to find a suitable position with the education that I have obtained and had to seek to move to another location outside of my jurisdiction of the Cherokee nation. After leaving the Cherokee Nation I had become an “At Large” citizen which is what the tribe would call a tribal member that has left the tribal nation.
In 2009 I moved to Tulsa Oklahoma where I found, and it position at Hyundai Automax which was the start of my serious career path at the age of 28. I was a late bloomer. I eventually realize the seriousness and the competitiveness and the need for me to go back and get an education on top of what I had already achieved. I had two beautiful kids which didn't stop me from pursuing a college education and enrolled myself into Connor State College where I accumulated my associates degree in science. While I was getting my education at Connors State College, I also was an employee of the facility within the IT department for a tier 3 program which implemented zoom rooms into the facility to accommodate for curriculum Bing streamed online for students gaining an education at home. While being a part of this program and installing zoom devices into the classrooms we also presented the benefits of utilizing zoom in the classroom to other universities and colleges throughout the Oklahoma State.
After completing the Tier 3 program and accumulating my associates degree from Connors I had pursued a position with the Oklahoma medical marijuana authority as a compliance grow inspector in 2021. Which I currently am working. I always understood that I would be learning new things daily and never thought that my education would end but always seemed that I found myself at a crossroads of trying to find something more productive in my life. My question is how can I contribute to humanity?
We've gone generations of watching fictional shows that involve exploration of space and we are now just getting to breakthroughs in innovation that will contribute to how we think of planetary exploration today, which is why I decided to get into the aviation and aerospace management program with Oklahoma State University; I wanted to reach beyond the stars or at least help.