Milan Teacher Sees Former Students Reach NASA, Aerospace Careers

When Blake LaFuente left Milan High School, NASA was not the plan.

He studied public policy at the University of Michigan, planned to go to law school and interned with a Ypsilanti law firm before realizing that was not the career he wanted.

Then NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sent back the first close-up images of Pluto.

“I was really struck by the excitement the scientists behind it had,” LaFuente said. “I’m like, ‘Well, that seems really fun. I’d love to do space stuff.’”

Today, LaFuente is a mission telemetry engineer with NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center. He recently supported Artemis II by helping manage how NASA received data from the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, the rocket’s second-stage engine.

NASA’s Artemis II mission launched April 1 and splashed down April 10 after a nearly 10-day crewed flight around the moon. The mission marked the first crewed Artemis flight and a major step in the agency’s return to the moon.

LaFuente’s job, in plain terms, is to help get rocket data to the people who need it during launches. He writes software for the consoles engineers use to monitor rockets and spacecraft, including temperatures, pressures, voice systems, video systems and other data.

“Being able to process all that data and get it in the hands of the experts who can understand what that means, that’s where really I come in,” LaFuente said.

But LaFuente’s Milan connection to space goes back before NASA. He said Cindy Hasselbring, his former AP Statistics teacher at Milan High School, helped make space and science feel exciting.

Hasselbring, who is also from Milan, spent 16 years teaching at Milan High School before her own career moved into national science, technology, engineering and math education work. She now works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in the agency’s Office of STEM Engagement.

Hasselbring said her current work is about helping students see themselves in aerospace careers by giving them hands-on experiences.

“It brings out the teacher side of me,” she said.

She remembers LaFuente as an excellent student who asked a lot of questions. Years later, after learning he was working at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Hasselbring had lunch with him there and found herself sitting across from a former student wearing a NASA badge.

“That was pretty special,” she said.

LaFuente is not the only former Milan student whose career has moved into aerospace.

Corey Scott, another former student of Hasselbring’s, is a senior controls and automation engineer at Blue Origin in Florida. He designs, builds and commissions automated equipment used in manufacturing New Glenn, Blue Origin’s launch vehicle.

Scott said he grew up interested in math and science, with strong role models and mentors in Milan. He later studied electrical engineering at Ohio Northern University and worked as a controls engineer before aerospace projects eventually led him to Blue Origin.

He said Hasselbring helped influence his decision to enter engineering and now realizes how important her math classes were to his later work.

“I realize now that she was the person to teach me trigonometry, which is so incredibly important in engineering,” Scott said. “I’ve used it so much throughout my career, super thankful for that.”

Hasselbring also pointed to former student Gerald Giarmo, lead engineer for Relativity Space, as another Milan connection in the aerospace industry.

“I am so proud of all of my former students, but having Gerald, Corey and Blake as teammates working in the aerospace industry makes my heart soar,” Hasselbring said in an email.

For LaFuente, one of the biggest things he wants students to understand is that space work is broader than many people realize. It is not only astronauts or big names such as NASA and SpaceX. The field also needs engineers, programmers, lawyers, business professionals, scientists, mathematicians, universities, contractors and smaller companies that help support missions.

Hasselbring sees the same thing in her current NASA work. She said aerospace is an ecosystem with nearly every kind of job, from scientists and engineers to educators, electricians, heating, ventilation and air conditioning technicians, cybersecurity workers and welders.

“No flight goes to space without an HVAC technician or an electrician,” Hasselbring said. “Those are really critical to completing the NASA mission.”

For students in Milan, the story offers a reminder that a career in aerospace does not have to begin with a perfect plan or a straight line. It can begin with curiosity, a teacher, a class that sparks something and the willingness to follow an unexpected path.

For LaFuente, Scott and other Milan connections, those paths now reach far beyond the classroom.

And for local students looking toward the future, the sky may not be the limit after all.

Featured image: Blake LaFuente, a Milan High School graduate, stands near the Artemis II rocket at Kennedy Space Center. Photo courtesy of Blake LaFuente