Quotes by Ellen Ochoa

I tell students that the opportunities I had were a result of having a good educational background. Education is what allows you to stand out.

I'm not trying to make every kid an astronaut, but I want kids to think about a career and the preparation they'll need.

What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire - the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery.

We are involved in technology development for, you know, missions that we hope to plan that would take us to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.

Usually, girls weren't encouraged to go to college and major in math and science. My high school calculus teacher, Ms. Paz Jensen, made math appealing and motivated me to continue studying it in college.

I think of it as a good opportunity to let, in particular, school kids know that this job and other interesting jobs in science and engineering are open to anyone who works hard in school and gets a good education and studies math and science. And that it's not just for a select group of people.

A hallmark of the Latino community is to help one another, if students are interested in a way to give back and help their communities, becoming a teacher is probably one of the very best ways of doing that.