“Nobody’s perfect,” said Kaylisa Wolsey. “No one’s going to be doing their job perfectly all the time. What (employers) want is people who can adapt when something goes wrong and be able to fix it efficiently and effectively.”

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And that’s what they do. While it seems like BYU-Idaho’s High Altitude Research Team focuses on learning about the sky and weather, what they really do is so much more. They teach, they learn, and they get experience in fields most don’t think about.

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“A lot of the technical skills I was learning because of my degree,” Wolsey said. “So, I feel like HART granted more of an opportunity to apply those skills and then learn a lot of soft skills, like adaptability is a huge one.”

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For example, when she joined the team, she became the equipment lead. However, she had nothing to go on since the last lead left no instructions behind when they graduated. So, what did Wolsey do? She adapted and learned. Whenever a piece of tech broke, or just didn’t function the way it should, her job was to check why, with nothing to base it off of. So, she adapted and learned on the job.

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But what’s it like getting that experience?

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Waking up at 6 a.m. and letting car-sized balloons fly. Wolsey said that at the time it wasn’t easy because “you’re in college so you’re tired and you’ve probably got a lot of homework and you don’t want to waste the one day you can sleep in.”

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But looking back, she said those are some of her favorite memories. “It was actually a really fun way to spend time with my peers and my colleagues, outside of a classroom, where we’re still doing science and we’re out in the field, using the equipment, making sure that everything’s attached to the balloon, and it was just a really fun way to use our skills out in the field and be together.”

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To give it a ranking, Wolsey said, “10 out of 10, recommend. Even if that’s not what you want to go into for your degree, … it was still a way to feel connected to the school and to the other college students … (because) we’re all working together on a project that we’re invested in. You know, nobody gets up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday in college if they don’t care about what they’re doing. Being around that kind of group of people is very uplifting and encouraging; it’s nice to know there are people out there that are willing to work hard and have a good time doing it. It’s more than the science behind it, it’s the people.”