Before she was using big telescopes to look at even bigger stars, Emily grew up in Taunton Massachusetts.
She had some amazing and hard-working science and math teachers at her school.
But Emily was the only kid in her class who loved science and was completely obsessed with space and astronomy for kids.
She was even made fun of sometimes. But all that changed when she went for a summer camp organized by Johns Hopkins. That experience, she said, was “mind-blowing”.
Suddenly she was cool for being interested in science, and she was surrounded by other people with the same interests! “Hanging around with peers who also liked science was wonderful,” Emily shared.
Growing up Emily enjoyed watching movies like Twister because they portrayed scientists as cool and smart.
She was particularly fascinated by the Apollo 13 mission and the amazing team who worked to bring the astronauts safely back to Earth.
Her only childhood regret? Not being able to go to space camp for learning astronomy for kids. (She thinks she can still go).