Humans of UVU: Future Astronaut Mikaela Cowles

This week, Humans of UVU highlights Mikaela Cowles, a sophomore studying Physics with an emphasis in Astronomy who has a dream of being an astronaut for NASA.

“My entire life my dad was interested in space and always had space magazines so I would look at them and I wouldn’t understand a single word in them. But I always thought they were really cool… [My dad] always talked to me about it and the science questions that I had, and so as I got older I realized that I really liked all the space stuff too,” said Cowles, describing what inspired her to pursue physics and astronomy.  Her father is also a UVU alumnus. 

In the summer of 2019, Cowles attended a Space Camp in Alabama at the Space Rocket Center and shared photos of her experiences. Cowles described the photos used in this article.

 “One photo is me on a multi access trainer at the Space Camp in Alabama in the Space Rocket Center. The other is in a simulated version of Space Shuttle. We were doing a simulated mission, and we could pretend like we were actually one of the astronauts!”

Cowles is the youngest of four kids and is from St. George, Utah. She likes to rock climb at The Project or The Quarry in her free time. After finishing her degree at UVU, Cowles is planning on furthering her education with a PhD, with the end goal of being an astronaut for NASA. 

More Humans of UVU

More stories in this series can be found here.