Luchinsky speaker directs gazes to the skies

Former astronaut inspires students during Luchinsky Lecture Student Pad Project making a difference for women across the globe

FORMER NASA ASTRONAuT LELAND MELvIN TOOK AN IMpORTANT LESSON FROM THE pOpuLAR CHILDREN’S bOOK, CuRIOuS GEORGE. “Make sure you have a man or woman in the yellow hat that has your back,” Melvin said. “I’ve always had at least one person that helped me, no matter what happened to me.” Melvin, who flew a pair of missions on the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2008 and 2009 and logged more than 500 hours in space, spoke about grit, grace, and perseverance to an audience of more than 300 Penn State students, alumni, and others during the Schreyer Honors College’s annual Mark Luchinsky Memorial Lecture in January. That grit helped Melvin, a star wide receiver at the University of Richmond, pivot to a graduate degree in materials science after hamstring injuries derailed his NFL career. It helped him overcome an underwater training accident that left him completely deaf for several weeks and medically disqualified for space flight, and the loss of his friends and colleagues who were aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated as it returned to Earth in 2003. Melvin would later speak at each of the seven astronauts’ memorial services about their sacrifice.

He has had several people help him along the way, including NASA’s then-chief flight surgeon Rich Williams, who signed a waiver clearing Melvin for space flight. But Melvin’s setbacks only made him more determined to keep going, he said. “I believed that anything is possible,” he said. “And it truly is.” Melvin later became the NASA Associate Administrator for Education and he remains an advocate for STEAM education, speaking to groups around the world.

Following the virtual lecture, he also fielded questions from roughly four dozen Schreyer Scholars about leadership, overcoming challenges, and pursuing passions during a separate online session. He encouraged the students to make sure they were getting the self-care they needed, reminded them “to find joy in the simple pleasures,” and urged them to turn their dreams into goals.

“Start owning who you are right now,” Melvin said. “You are the future. You are going to be doing whatever you dream and desire. So own it now.”

This January, with the help of a registered nonprofit, the Student Pad Project set up its first production site for sanitary napkins in southern India. The student organization, founded in 2019 by Scholars Philip Ratnasamy and Katelyn Rudisill, has raised more than $10,000 and used it to fund the site, which is in the Irula tribal region just east of Bangalore. Ratnasamy and Rudisill, both biochemistry and molecular biology majors who graduated in May, were inspired to establish the organization after watching the documentary “Period. End of Sentence,” which follows a group of women in Hapur, India who are operating a machine that makes sanitary pads while also dealing with the nation’s taboos regarding menstruation. As they spread word of their registered student organization and the importance of their work, the students discovered that those taboos weren’t unique to India. “Although we knew this was a serious problem and we wanted to make an impact, unfortunately the idea of women’s health and feminine hygiene is sort of a taboo topic, even here in the United States,” said Ratnasamy, the president of the Student Pad Project. “People don’t like to talk about it. It’s also an issue that most people in the United States aren’t aware that it exists or the degree that it exists to.”

Ratnasamy and Rudisill were joined in the organization by four other Penn State students who had interest in medicine and, by advertising on social media and going to involvement fairs, eventually grew the group to roughly two dozen members. They’ve raised funds in a number of ways, including direct mailings to donors, a virtual bingo night, and a virtual green-screen gala that raised more than $1,500 in 30 minutes. The organization hopes to begin raising funds for additional sites. Project inspired her to do global work once she becomes a physician. “It gives you a perspective on your life in the United States,” Rudisill said. “Just because you don’t see the issues doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect people in other countries.”

Ratnasamy remembers speaking with some of the women who operate the site — with the help of a translator — shortly after its launch and how excited they were about the chance to use it to make sustainable change. “Just seeing that initial idea (born) in a dorm room translate into an impact on hundreds, if not thousands of lives for the foreseeable future is something I’ll always take away from my time at Penn State,” he said, “and I’m hopeful that future leaders of this club get to experience that as well.”

Rudisill, who now attends the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, said her experience with the Student Pad