Adam Barriga’s story first caught our attention back in 2009, when he was a 6th grader in Dave Mantus’ apprenticeship It Is Rocket Science. At his WOW! presentation, Adam taught rocket science to crowds filled with politicians, directors and CEOs at the Massachusetts State House, where his grandfather Eduardo Barriga worked as a custodian for most of his life. Recently retired, Eduardo watched with pride as his grandson impressed audiences in the very halls he used to clean.

Ten years later, Adam, now a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology, doesn’t really remember that day too much. But still fresh in his memory? Dr. Mantus’ crazy experiments, especially his “Astronaut Ice Cream” using liquid nitrogen:

“He had a huge container of it, pours it in a bin, grabs a banana—I remember this SO clearly, like this was yesterday! But he throws a banana inside, I’m thinking like, do something to change the banana—and it did! Literally he grabs it, chucks it against the table, straight up, and it just made a big thud noise and it just blew my mind. Stuff like this exists.”

It was experiments like these in Dave’s class that got Adam hooked on science. After Adam’s WOW!, his mom saw his interest and talent, pushing him in high school to pursue science programs at MIT, which led to internships at the Museum of Science, where he taught younger kids engineering. At Wentworth Institute, he joined the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Analytics (AIAA). Currently, Adam is in his second co-op as a Service Specialist at Schneider Electric.

His dream job? Working on jet engines at Boeing, which started in elementary school when he lived with his grandparents in East Boston, right next to Boston’s Logan Airport. 

“Waking up from my grandparents house I’d always see airplanes coming in and out, just roaring its engines. And I’ve always wanted to do something with that.”

With airplanes on his mind, Adam entered Edwards Middle School and saw science in a whole new, fun way. As Adam went on to pursue STEM in high school, Dave continued to amaze students with his hands-on experiments. He popped balloons with lasers, launched paper rockets and set students on missions, live video conferencing someone dressed as an astronaut about to perish in a solar flare. Year after year, Dave was just as blown away by his students, their talent and enthusiasm, returning every semester because he knew the problem wasn’t that they weren’t into science:

“So often these kids get marginalized because of socio-economic or neighborhood. It has nothing to do with a lack of interest, or excitement or desire. It’s how to communicate with them, how you present the problem and the resources they get.”

In 2015, Dave had a heart attack that required him to reexamine all of his commitments. But it was right in time for his last class on radiation, and Dave thought it the most perfect teaching moment:

“I showed them a photo of what happened…This is how they take an x-ray, this is what a heart looks like, and this is what my heart looks like, and they put this device inside my heart to keep my blood flowing.”

Though Dave didn’t know it for many years, how he communicated and presented his lessons laid the first stone in Adam’s STEM pathway.

“With what I was doing with Dr. Mantus, it inspired me in a way. I still love troubleshooting and critical thinking. I really liked what I was introduced to. I feel as though the whole concept of doing learning with your hands is a better way for it to stick with you.”