MIT volleyball

[mikegarrison]

Hey, just because it's good to see something nice about an Aero/Astro volleyball alum.

mitathletics.com/sports/w-volley/2013-14/releases/2014011019tjxr

After everything she packed into her days as a student-athlete at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it seems only fitting that Jennifer Harris Trosper's days now are 24 hours and 39 minutes long.

That's the length of a day on Mars, and Trosper is a key member of teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that have directed exploration for the past decade by four exploratory rovers on the Red Planet – including the current Curiosity rover.

At MIT, she was a four-year letter-winner in volleyball, helping the team to a 106-26 overall record and one appearance in the Division III Women's Volleyball Championship. Capping off her senior year, she also played softball for a season.

Trosper currently is deputy project manager and systems project engineer for the Mars Exploration Rover Project at JPL. She works with the team that will be guiding Curiosity this year from its landing spot in Gale Crater to Mount Sharp, exploring Mars' geology along the way.

Beginning 10 years ago this month, she served for a few months as mission manager for the Mars Spirit rover after having led development of that spacecraft (including its flight and ground software) and overseeing pre-mission testing and training.

[ersatzhusker]

Apr 24, 2014 18:19:55 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Hey, just because it's good to see something nice about an Aero/Astro volleyball alum.

As an Astro major myself (USAFA & Purdue) who also played VB, I 2nd the sentiment.

[chisovnik]

Apr 24, 2014 18:51:07 GMT -5 ersatzhusker said:

Apr 24, 2014 18:19:55 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Hey, just because it's good to see something nice about an Aero/Astro volleyball alum.

As an Astro major myself (USAFA & Purdue) who also played VB, I 2nd the sentiment.

This isn't about you.

[ersatzhusker]

Apr 24, 2014 21:01:53 GMT -5 chisovnik said:

Apr 24, 2014 18:51:07 GMT -5 ersatzhusker said:

As an Astro major myself (USAFA & Purdue) who also played VB, I 2nd the sentiment.

This isn't about you.

What's wrong with you? Do you have any reading comprehension? I said:

I 2nd the sentiment. about: "Hey, just because it's good to see something nice about an Aero/Astro volleyball alum."

[Phaedrus]

Very cool.

[Deleted]

This is completely expected... I expect them to be curing cancer, going to Mars, being able to speak 8 foreign languages, bring Latin back from being dead, make a bomb out of gum, a shoelace, and some aspirin, and hack into any computer system from their iphone. MIT grads are a different breed- must be hard to be that smart all the time.

[Phaedrus]

Apr 25, 2014 8:27:14 GMT -5 @kungfupanda said:

This is completely expected... I expect them to be curing cancer, going to Mars, being able to speak 8 foreign languages, bring Latin back from being dead, make a bomb out of gum, a shoelace, and some aspirin, and hack into any computer system from their iphone. MIT grads are a different breed- must be hard to be that smart all the time.

I don't think MacGyver went to MIT.

[Deleted]

Apr 25, 2014 8:37:11 GMT -5 Phaedrus said:

Apr 25, 2014 8:27:14 GMT -5 @kungfupanda said:

This is completely expected... I expect them to be curing cancer, going to Mars, being able to speak 8 foreign languages, bring Latin back from being dead, make a bomb out of gum, a shoelace, and some aspirin, and hack into any computer system from their iphone. MIT grads are a different breed- must be hard to be that smart all the time.

I don't think MacGyver went to MIT.

They actually modeled MacGyver after MIT students.

[PSUVolley]

Apr 25, 2014 8:27:14 GMT -5 @kungfupanda said:

This is completely expected... I expect them to be curing cancer, going to Mars, being able to speak 8 foreign languages, bring Latin back from being dead, make a bomb out of gum, a shoelace, and some aspirin, and hack into any computer system from their iphone. MIT grads are a different breed- must be hard to be that smart all the time.

It is easy for them to be insane all the time, though. One of my former girlfriends is an MIT grad. She moonlighted as an M.D., but her day job was psychopathy.

[mikegarrison]

Apr 25, 2014 10:37:46 GMT -5 PSUVolley said:

Apr 25, 2014 8:27:14 GMT -5 @kungfupanda said:

This is completely expected... I expect them to be curing cancer, going to Mars, being able to speak 8 foreign languages, bring Latin back from being dead, make a bomb out of gum, a shoelace, and some aspirin, and hack into any computer system from their iphone. MIT grads are a different breed- must be hard to be that smart all the time.

It is easy for them to be insane all the time, though. One of my former girlfriends is an MIT grad. She moonlighted as an M.D., but her day job was psychopathy.

Your relationship problems aren't MIT's fault.

[bc1900]

Awesome. Great to see stories about kids who play a sport while going to college, versus going to college to play a sport.

[mikegarrison]

Apr 25, 2014 10:53:18 GMT -5 bc1900 said:

Awesome. Great to see stories about kids who play a sport while going to college, versus going to college to play a sport.

I think it is safe to say that is true of almost any of the thousands of D3 athletes, not just those at MIT. But yes, I thought this was an interesting story about a volleyball player who "went pro in something other than sports."

[bc1900]

Apr 25, 2014 11:05:08 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Apr 25, 2014 10:53:18 GMT -5 bc1900 said:

Awesome. Great to see stories about kids who play a sport while going to college, versus going to college to play a sport.

I think it is safe to say that is true of almost any of the thousands of D3 athletes, not just those at MIT. But yes, I thought this was an interesting story about a volleyball player who "went pro in something other than sports."

Yep. Also true for D1 athletes, 95% (or so) of whom are finished playing their sport (on a sanctioned, organized team) once their college career ends. It's important for ALL college athletes to understand college is about more, a LOT more, than just playing the sport.

[PSUVolley]

Apr 25, 2014 10:46:44 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Apr 25, 2014 10:37:46 GMT -5 PSUVolley said:

It is easy for them to be insane all the time, though. One of my former girlfriends is an MIT grad. She moonlighted as an M.D., but her day job was psychopathy.

Your relationship problems aren't MIT's fault.

I don't believe I said they were.