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Carolyn Harrington proudly wears her NASA uniform and holds a certificate from the space agency.
Carolyn, and 133 students from 21 states and five countries, learned about what it takes to become an astronaut, participated in astronaut training and took simulated voyages into space.
Carolyn was chosen to be a part of a group of seven students from the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston to visit the space camp.
The special camp was designed specifically for blind and visually impaired students, who got to experience the same simulations and programs that real-life astronauts go through in training.
Each of the students was assigned a different role.
“I was Mission Specialist 2,” said Carolyn, who has been mostly blind since birth. “We got to do missions on an exact replica of a shuttle.”
Carolyn has stage four vision in her right eye, which means there is some usable vision; her left eye is in stage five, which means there is no usable vision.
Before the trip, Carolyn attended a weekend program in May at Perkins, where she got an introduction to space exploration. She has also visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In Alabama, Carolyn studied space science and math, designed around an expanded core curriculum geared toward blind and visually impaired students.
But the students’ impairments did not hold them back, according to Carolyn’s mother, Teresa Harrington.
Along with the classroom work, the students tumbled in a multi-axis trainer, like the country’s first astronaut Alan Shepard Jr.; took trips to Jupiter and Mars aboard a motion-based simulator; docked a satellite using a manned maneuvering unit; bounced in a micro-gravity training chair to simulate a walk on the moon; and took a ride on the Five Degrees of Freedom trainer.
“That was really cool,” said Carolyn, of the Five Degrees of Freedom training chair, a simulator used by the Gemini and Apollo astronauts to practice moving in a micro-gravity environment.
Carolyn also built a miniature rocket, which was launched at the space center in a field with those made by the other participants.
“They were loud,” she said, displaying her recovered rocket on her lap during a recent interview at her family’s Easton home. “But it was fun.”
Each team was named after a famous astronaut, she said — hers was Team Aldrin, after Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, one of the first astronauts to walk on the moon.
“I liked all of it,” said Carolyn, when asked what she enjoyed most at the space camp. “I especially liked the rides and meeting astronaut Robert Gibson.”
Learning to persevere
Thirteen-year-old Carolyn, for all intents and purposes, is a normal seventh-grader. She’s a huge Hannah Montana fan, she loves the American Girl franchise, and wants to be a singer when she grows up.
But unlike most children her age, Carolyn has been mostly blind her whole life. Born at 23 weeks, she weighed only one pound and was just 11 inches long. She is a medical miracle, said Harrington, her mother.
“The doctors said she would never walk, never talk,” Harrington said. “But look where she is; look how far she’s come. She is completely mainstreamed.”
After spending the first eight months of her life in the neonatal unit at the Cornell New York Medical Center, Carolyn’s family brought her home, taught her to walk and talk, and laid the groundwork for her to become the softball and piano playing, dancing, Girl Scout she is today.
Carolyn worked with therapists in a birth-to-3-years-old program, then moved on to a preschool program until she was 5. She began learning Braille in kindergarten, attending Samuel Staples Elementary School.
Carolyn attends Helen Keller Middle School, named after the well-known deaf and blind woman who once lived in Easton. Keller attended the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston — the same school Carolyn accompanied to the Huntsville Space Station.
Carolyn also attends the Lighthouse School in New York each Saturday, where she studies music.
She is active at her school and in the community — she was a member of her school’s weather club last year, went through the DARE program, and this year is a member of the Student Council and the Gang Green recycling club. To top it all off, she maintains high grades and is an avid science student.
“Carolyn is learning in this community with her peers, and I believe her peers are also learning from her,” said her mother. “There is a village of friends and teachers that are helping her achieve her independence and have a great future.”
Carolyn lives her life like the rest of the children her age, despite her disability, Harrington said.
“She doesn’t give up,” explained her mother. “She is determined, works really hard and perseveres in spite of the obstacles she faces. Her life shows that anything is possible, and that people should never give up hope. She has never let her circumstance hold her back.”
Carolyn’s sister Jennifer said Carolyn “is willing to try anything. She’s bolder than I am sometimes.”
The Easton Carnival, said Carolyn, is one of her favorite times of the year.
“I go on every ride,” Carolyn said. “Except the rip cord. I did it once, but I’m never doing that thing again.”
According to her family, Carolyn is always learning.
“She wants to learn everything she can, and is eager to take in more information,” said Jennifer, a teacher in Bridgeport. “Her teachers are inspired by her.”
Her trip to the space station, Carolyn said, further fulfilled her desire to learn.
“I like to learn,” she said. “Science is my favorite subject.”
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