“I had this little camera [called a view-master] and it had a little viewer with a reel of little squares. You put it in the camera, flick it down, and see a new picture. That’s what started me.
“…Then, in high school, I started taking a photography class. My photo teacher was a huge inspiration. He would send me home with DVDs and VHS [tapes] to prove that you could make a career out of this because I just couldn’t believe that. I would say, ‘No, you can’t! I have to learn science!’
“Science is awesome, so I went to school for biology. I got lost one day, and this upperclassman helped me find where I was going, literally and figuratively. She said, ‘Why don’t you come to see what I do?’ She was in the bio-med photo major and walked me through the labs and everything. Instantly, I knew this was what I wanted to do. I switched my major the next week. It was like fate.
“I believe you always end up where you need to be and that everybody can make things happen for themselves. They just have to be creative in how they think and how they approach situations. You belong wherever you think you belong.”
— Jolearra Tshiteya, Roman Space Telescope Technical Photographer, ARCATA, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Image Credit: NASA / Angeles Miron
Interviewer: NASA / Angeles Miron