{"id":776946,"date":"2026-07-22T01:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/776946\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T01:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:45:09","slug":"former-first-lady-of-west-virginia-visits-spacetrek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/776946\/","title":{"rendered":"Former First Lady of West Virginia visits SpaceTrek"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">BUCKHANNON, W.Va (WBOY) \u2014\u00a0Former First Lady of West Virginia Gayle Manchin paid a visit to <a data-ylk=\"slk:SpaceTrek on West Virginia Wesleyan College&#039;s campus;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wboy.com\/news\/upshur\/spacetrek-helping-girls-explore-interest-in-stem\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceTrek on West Virginia Wesleyan College&#8217;s campus<\/a> Tuesday, where campers showcased their lunar science research after a week of hands-on activities, including building their own miniature satellites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Campers presented their projects to Manchin and even invited her to participate in an experiment herself, which she said she was happy to accept.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Whether engineering, aerospace, math; such a broad array of opportunities that young women today have absolutely every access to,&#8221; Manchin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:SpaceTrek helping girls explore interest in STEM;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wboy.com\/news\/upshur\/spacetrek-helping-girls-explore-interest-in-stem\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0SpaceTrek helping girls explore interest in STEM\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As the federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, Manchin discussed how programs like SpaceTrek support a larger goal of expanding education opportunities across the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;One of the initiatives that came out of my appointment was an initiative called ARISE,&#8221; Manchin said. She added that the program is designed to invest in Appalachia&#8217;s workforce by expanding access to education as well as career training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She said initiatives like SpaceTrek help students to find their paths whether in a STEM field or not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;They may find that they want to work in this, or that it&#8217;s not for them,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">With the program being for high school girls, Manchin said they can begin to explore careers early.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wboy.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUCKHANNON, W.Va (WBOY) \u2014\u00a0Former First Lady of West Virginia Gayle Manchin paid a visit to SpaceTrek on West&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[331202,79,193,331203,7943,27416],"class_list":["post-776946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-gayle-manchin","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacetrek","tag-west-virginia","tag-west-virginia-wesleyan-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}