Shelby reaches for the stars

Over the last two and a half years, Shelby Holmes, New College’s Senior Outreach Officer, has supported thousands of school students on New College’s Step-Up Programme, inspiring them to "reach for the stars".  Now, Shelby is taking a piece of her own advice and will embark on an "out-of-this-world" adventure in the coming months.  

Excitingly, Shelby is one of a handful of new recruits for the Aeronautical Space and Innovation Foundation.  ASIF is a programme affiliated with the European Space Programme and will culminate in a three-day space exploration programme in 2027.  Her intensive training programme will commence in September, meaning that she has only a few months remaining in New College. 

"I’ve adored working at New College but I’ve always secretly harboured an ambition to go into space.  Initially, I applied on a whim, not thinking that I’d get through the preliminary stages of the selection process.  There were aptitude tests which my Oxford degree certainly helped with, and I’ve always been quite good at passing exams so that side of things was fairly straight-forward. Physically, I trained myself to do around 1300 sit ups, 500 press-ups, and I also installed a chin-up bar on the wall of our office.  Every day, I’d go for a 15K run before and after work, so it has been a hard slog but it has definitely been worth it".

Head of Outreach and Communications, Daniel Powell, commented:

"I’ll be very sad to see Shelby leave New College but how could I stand in the way of her ambition to go to the Final Frontier?!  Shelby is a huge Star-Trek fan, so she really will be fulfilling her dream when she blasts off in a few years from now.  The ASIF programme sounds amazing and I’m so proud of Shelby; I’ll definitely be there on the launchpad to wave her off".

Shelby, New College wishes you well as you boldly go where no Senior Outreach Officer has gone before.  

*N.B. this article was posted on 1 April.