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12-Year-Old Prodigy Is Headed To Arizona State University With Dreams Of Working For NASA

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March 16, 2021

She’s a genius!

12-year-old Alena Wicker is set to begin college at Arizona State University (ASU) with dreams of one day working for NASA, 12 News reports. Alena has always wanted to join the engineers at NASA, and it all started with Legos.

“I always dreamed of being an engineer because, throughout my life, I liked the building. I’m kind of a nerd for the NASA-sized Legos,” Alena told 12 News. 

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Once her mother, Daphne McQuarter, saw it was a passion of hers, she began supporting Alena any way she knew how. 

“At four years old, she said I’m going to work at NASA. She just had a gift for numbers and Lego and science, so I started nurturing that gift,” McQuarter told reporters.

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Now the preteen is headed to college this summer after passing her homeschool high school  classes with flying colors. Alena will be majoring in astronomical and planetary science and chemistry at Arizona State University. She plans to finish college by 16-years-old and begin working at NASA building rovers like the one that just went on the perseverance mission to Mars.

“I’ll be driving in one of those future space mobiles by the time that I graduate college,” Alena said.

She is working on perfecting her craft and plans to start a podcast soon. Alena doesn’t think of her accomplishments thus far as extraordinary, just something she wanted to do.

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“I just had a goal I wanted to get to…I’m just planning it all as I go. It doesn’t matter what your age or what you’re planning to do. Go for it, dream, then accomplish it,” Alena said.

You can follow Alena’s work on Facebook.

Congratulations, Alena, you’re an inspiration to us all!

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Photo Courtesy of WSVN

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