I am Lieutenant Colonel Jess Tompkins .
I'm currently the deputy group
commander here at Edwards Air Force
Base . But what I really do is flight
test engineering .
So my job , I consider it like a party
planner where I have to make everybody
kind of come together to have that
celebration . So I have to bring in all
of the planning ahead of time . What
are we going to do ? What's our focus ?
Uh , then I have to get all of the
participants send out the invitations .
If you will write the invitation or the
test plan and then we go ahead and we
have our party or our flight test where
we'll go and we'll execute and then
we'll take a look at it afterwards and
say , all right , what went well what
didn't go well so that our next party
or flight test goes even better and we
can continue to do it safely .
So stem really was just kind of a
baseline to help me learn new things .
So by understanding a lot of the
initial stem background , I'm able to
then take on any job that really needs
to be done in flight test . So it's
helped me understand how satellites
work or GPS , you know , works ,
interacts with our airplanes or how we
program systems or even just how better
understand how airflow flows over an
airplane and and do all those types of
tests . So stem I use every day in my
job from a technical standpoint and
helping me learn new things but stem
also helps me in learning how to ask
questions , which I think is one of the
most important things is that hey , if
you don't understand something , ask
the question really figure out until
you can understand it . And by learning
how to do that with my stem background ,
I'm able to really use that in all
aspects of my job .
The really cool thing that I get to do
is play with all the new stuff and all
the new toys and technology before
anybody else gets to do it . And so
that's really the cool part about it is
sometimes you can talk about it .
Sometimes you can't , but you still get
to be the first and to be the first one
to really explore and make a product
even better than it is , is really fun
and exciting and this has happened even
just after college with my very first
job where they trusted me to go out to
an airplane and be able to learn and
understand a new system that was on
that airplane without , I'm not a pilot ,
I'm an engineer . Didn't even get to
fly the airplane but to go and really
explore and play with that new toy
before anybody else did . Even the
pilots , that was really fun .
My position was really just , I wanted
to , I wanted to be an astronaut . I
wanted to go to space and so everybody
I talked to said go be an engineer .
And so while I was an engineer , I
wanted to figure out how can I go to
school for this , the Air Force said
they would pay for it . And then it
turned out once I started my Air Force
job , I just really loved it . And so
having that stem background and getting
that engineering degree enabled me to
be qualified to do all of of the flight
testing that they have in the Air Force ,
which is taking me to so many different
jobs and it's been such a good time
that I just want to keep on going and
keep doing it . And a lot of my goals
have changed just because of
opportunities I have seen and people
I've met along the way , being able to
help me get to that next step .
I think the biggest piece of advice I
would have for students is to not let
any kind of lack of knowledge prevent
you from trying something . So even if
you're not entirely sure how to do
something , when you're asked to do it ,
don't be afraid of that challenge , go
and try rely on some people , your
peers , people you respect to help you
learn and figure out how to do it and
you might be experienced and exposed to
something that's really fun that you
didn't think you could do it first ,
but turn out to be a really good option