{"id":9946,"date":"2025-07-30T16:43:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T23:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=9946"},"modified":"2025-08-01T10:36:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:36:52","slug":"palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/","title":{"rendered":"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ever since she was seven years old, Julia Alvarado wanted to become an astronaut with NASA. With encouragement from her professors at Palomar College, Alvarado is now working for NASA and feels like her dream has come true.<\/p>\n<p>Alvarado still remembers seeing the movie <em>Apollo 13<\/em> with her grandfather when she was a child and being intrigued by the NASA control room depicted in the movie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe told me that\u2019s NASA, and if you want to go to space, you have to work there. But you have to study very hard,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter that, all my decisions were about becoming an astronaut.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alvarado was working as a construction wireman in the Imperial Valley solar farms when she learned through her union about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/wcce\/apprenticeship\/iw\/\">electrical training institute<\/a> at Palomar College. Alvarado attended the institute, then went on to earn an inside Wireman Associate of Science degree in 2018, taking classes online and during nights and weekends while working.<\/p>\n<p>After graduating from Palomar, Alvarado went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Murray State University in Kentucky. She then posted a profile on LinkedIn inclusive of her degree and experience.\u00a0 Alvarado\u2019s childhood dream came true two years ago when she accepted a job at NASA as an electrician at their facility in Mountain View, California.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after she was hired, her boss took her to the control room \u2013 bringing back memories of seeing the control room while watching <em>Apollo 13<\/em>. \u00a0\u201cWhen I saw myself in the control room, I realized I was living my dream. I made it,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cI realized that with all my sacrifices and having faith in God&#8217;s plan for me, my dreams have come true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alvarado said the support of her professors at Palomar College helped her pursue her dream. Before she attended Palomar, Alvarado said people discouraged her when she talked about her dream.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPalomar College put aside my ethnicity and they gave me the options that I needed,\u201d she said. \u201cThe professors helped me find my voice and focus on my purpose and my career goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alvarado is hoping to transition to a job as an engineer at NASA, and at 40 years old, she hasn\u2019t given up on her dream of becoming an astronaut. Inspired by discussions in one of her Palomar College classes, Alvarado also hopes to inspire other women seeking jobs in engineering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn English 100 class with Ms. Christina Jayne made me start thinking about gender roles and stereotypes. It made me think about how I was living and the future of my field,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cI want to encourage other women to pursue careers regardless of the position or label. Everything is possible if you trust in yourself and in God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever since she was seven years old, Julia Alvarado wanted to become an astronaut with NASA. With encouragement from her professors at Palomar College, Alvarado is now working for NASA and feels like her dream has come true. Alvarado still remembers seeing the movie Apollo 13 with her grandfather when she was a child and&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/\">\u00a0Continue Reading:<span> Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10665,"featured_media":9947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA - Palomar News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever since she was seven years old, Julia Alvarado wanted to become an astronaut with NASA. With encouragement from her professors at Palomar College, Alvarado is now working for NASA and feels like her dream has come true. Alvarado still remembers seeing the movie Apollo 13 with her grandfather when she was a child and&hellip; \u00a0Continue Reading: Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Palomar News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-30T23:43:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-01T17:36:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2025\/07\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fa7fb1d38fe67a94aba99b8ede614313\"},\"headline\":\"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-30T23:43:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-01T17:36:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":463,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/50\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Carousel\",\"Features\",\"Home\",\"Slider\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/\",\"name\":\"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA - Palomar News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/50\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-30T23:43:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-01T17:36:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fa7fb1d38fe67a94aba99b8ede614313\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/50\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/50\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"A collage of photos of a former Palomar College student now working at NASA.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Palomar News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fa7fb1d38fe67a94aba99b8ede614313\",\"name\":\"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/561433452eb5b37097cebf1752a8e0a8e2889577bdc1f17eb3182e79ebbfbca4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/561433452eb5b37097cebf1752a8e0a8e2889577bdc1f17eb3182e79ebbfbca4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/561433452eb5b37097cebf1752a8e0a8e2889577bdc1f17eb3182e79ebbfbca4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/jlanthierbandy\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA - Palomar News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA - Palomar News","og_description":"Ever since she was seven years old, Julia Alvarado wanted to become an astronaut with NASA. With encouragement from her professors at Palomar College, Alvarado is now working for NASA and feels like her dream has come true. Alvarado still remembers seeing the movie Apollo 13 with her grandfather when she was a child and&hellip; \u00a0Continue Reading: Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA","og_url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/","og_site_name":"Palomar News","article_published_time":"2025-07-30T23:43:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-01T17:36:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2025\/07\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/"},"author":{"name":"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/fa7fb1d38fe67a94aba99b8ede614313"},"headline":"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA","datePublished":"2025-07-30T23:43:01+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-01T17:36:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/"},"wordCount":463,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2025\/07\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg","articleSection":["Carousel","Features","Home","Slider"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/","url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/","name":"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA - Palomar News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2025\/07\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg","datePublished":"2025-07-30T23:43:01+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-01T17:36:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/fa7fb1d38fe67a94aba99b8ede614313"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2025\/07\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2025\/07\/Julia-Alvarado-1080x675-Collage5.jpg","width":1080,"height":675,"caption":"A collage of photos of a former Palomar College student now working at NASA."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-comet-gets-dream-job-at-nasa\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Palomar Comet Gets Dream Job at NASA"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/","name":"Palomar News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/fa7fb1d38fe67a94aba99b8ede614313","name":"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M.","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/561433452eb5b37097cebf1752a8e0a8e2889577bdc1f17eb3182e79ebbfbca4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/561433452eb5b37097cebf1752a8e0a8e2889577bdc1f17eb3182e79ebbfbca4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/561433452eb5b37097cebf1752a8e0a8e2889577bdc1f17eb3182e79ebbfbca4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lanthier Bandy, Julie M."},"url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/author\/jlanthierbandy\/"}]}},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 12:23:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9946"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9961,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9946\/revisions\/9961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}