This is Northwest Public Broadcastings Weekly News Now.

I'm Johanna Bejarano, and today I am with astronaut José Hernández who is visiting the Tri-Cities.

José, thank you so much for joining us.

Well, tell us about your conference today.

You are a really inspired person for the kids and what you were telling them today?

- Yeah.

Basically Im very happy to be here in Pasco High School.

I gave two conferences here, to the students.

Basically, told them that, the, sky's not the limit.

The stars are.

I'm living proof of that.

I tell them that I come from very similar backgrounds as a migrant farm worker and, that my father gave me a five ingredient recipe when I told him I wanted to be an astronaut.

He said, determine your purpose in life.

Recognize how far you are.

Develop a road map so you know how to get there.

Prepare yourself according to the challenge and develop a work ethic second to none.

I add a sixth ingredient, which is perseverance.

Its never give up because I tell the story of being rejected by NASA not once, twice, but 11 times.

It wasn't until the 12th time that I got selected.

So.

So I tell them, it doesn't matter where you start, it's it's where you end up.

You mention, well, your background, and you share like the same background with many kids here in Pasco and in the Tri-Cities and in general in many places in central Washington.

How do you think they can just empower themselves and follow during that perseverance path to, to follow or pursuing a STEM education or aerospace careers?

- I think, seeing me as an example.

You know, you get you start to believe you can do it when you see people that look like you and speak like you and more importantly, have come from similar backgrounds.

And I think that's the empowerment process.

Telling my story, and then they come to the conclusion that, hey, he started pretty similar to how I am right now, and if he did it, why cant I do it?

So you challenge the kids to dream big.

Thank you so much for being with us today and for you, our audience, follow us on Facebook and on Instagram.

I'm Johanna Bejarano with the Northwest Public Broadcasting Weekly News Now.