As an honor student and a Girl Scout who has earned her Gold Award, Ansley Ryan has her feet planted firmly on the ground. But the Manheim teen also has her head in the clouds - just not in the way that phrase is typically used.
Ansley, who is a senior at Lancaster Catholic High School, has a passion for astronomy. She attended Advanced Space Academy at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., earlier this year.
"I found out about the program through Girl Scouts," Ansley noted. "I'm really interested in astronomy and astrophysics, and it seemed like a really cool opportunity."
Ansley, who is a founding member of the astronomy club at Lancaster Catholic, said the weeklong camp provided hands-on opportunities to explore science, technology, engineering and math. "We did a lot of really fun projects," she recalled, including making a "space suit" for an egg and then launching it 50 feet into the air in a rocket the campers created. While the launch went well, the landing was a different story. "Our rocket landed on this tiny square of sidewalk and completely missed this whole huge field of grass we were trying to land on," she explained. "Our egg didn't do well."
The camp offered Ansley an opportunity to meet teens from all over the country while experiencing with what it's like to be an astronaut. Campers slept in quarters designed to resemble the International Space Station and trained in simulators like those used by NASA.
When she's not getting hands-on astronaut training, Ansley keeps busy in a wide range of clubs and activities at school. She's president of the Future Medical Leaders of America, is a member of Student Council and is chair of the finance committee of Mini-THON. She also serves as president of the Spanish National Honor Society and the astronomy club. She's captain of the quiz bowl team, secretary of the National Honor Society and a member of the field hockey team.
Outside of school, she's a Girl Scout who earned her Gold Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn, for creating masks during the beginning of the pandemic. "I set a goal of making 1,000 homemade cloth masks," she stated, noting that she gave away 50 to 100 masks a day to her community. In her admittedly limited spare time, Ansley, the daughter of Tim and Gayle Ryan, loves to read and to bake.
As she prepares to graduate in the spring, Ansley is still weighing her options for life after high school. She's considering the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy and several other colleges. A summer course she took with a Harvard professor introduced her to the idea of a career in astrobiology, which she says she might consider pursuing. She's also thinking about becoming a surgeon, but she doesn't plan on giving up her love of space any time soon.
"I've been interested in astronomy since I was a kid," she stated, noting that her family used to visit the planetarium at Lancaster's North Museum of Nature and Science regularly and would stargaze at home with a telescope. "I love the possibilities of space exploration. I love how infinite space is. We've only just scratched the surface of understanding what's out there."
Asked if she'd ever consider space travel, Ansley didn't hesitate to answer, noting, "I would really love to do that someday."
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