Standing in front of the classroom, Sonya Vishnyakova, Palo Alto High School junior and Rocket Club’s president, uses the slide show to explain how a solid-fuel rocket works. The classroom is quiet, with only quiet discussions among the attendees. Vishnaykova presents the solid-fuel engine’s functions with numerous labeled pictures. Her hand to closely demonstrate the process of how each part of the rocket assembles and functions.

This is a typical Wednesday for Rocket Club, a vocational group at Paly that provides students with resources and opportunities to explore the field of rocketry and aeronautics. 

“I want to create this club because I’m very passionate about space exploration and it’s genuinely my obsession,” Vishnyakova said. “My school I went to in the past had a rocket club and I just want to continue this club in Paly. I think it’s very fun to just bring people into this field.” 

Rocket Club meets weekly on Wednesdays, and each meeting starts with a new member-led presentation. In addition to these meetings, Rocket Club also arranges field trips to professional locations with connections to rocket manufacturers and other related subjects. Paly junior Sean Gustafson has been in this club throughout the whole semester. He explains the reason why he chooses to spend his time here. He learned a lot about rockets and aerospace through the lectures given by Vishnyakova.

“Sonya’s very, very good presentations that I find very important,” Gustafson said. “We are able to go on industry tours, and go to Berkeley to talk to a lot of professionals in the field.”

Around 15-20 members attend Rocket Club’s weekly meetings, and many find the club very helpful. In Particular, most attendees really liked the field trips that Vishnyakova planned over this past year.

“I loved our trip to Berkeley because I met a lot of interesting people,” sophomore Nika Petryaevskaya said. “I also did a presentation about rocket liquid engines and the Muon tech detector, which I think is really cool.”

Within this school year, Vishnyakova led various activities like field trips, speakers to stimulate the interest of the students. They’ve visited Berkeley and met up with their team in the first half of the school year. Vishnyakova also holds some other events like inviting speakers. Rocket club has invited elite in the field at Stanford University to speak during May 16th to the students. Vishnyakova is looking forward to more field trips and guest speakers next school year. 

“I want to find more people to join of course,” Vishnyakova said. “And continue to do more field trips, like for sure we are going to go to NASA, the Ames Center, and maybe Stanford. We’re working on it. And of course all those speakers.”

“We might want to participate in some competition if we can find some,” rocket club vice president Angelica Gera said. “If we have the ability to do that, we’re going to improve more and more.” 

Vishnyakova says prospective club members don’t need to have any prior experience or knowledge about rockets. It’s a club meant for students who are interested in STEM and want an opportunity to explore their interests in a more in-depth manner.

“It’s never about the knowledge that you have right now, it’s about the knowledge that you’ll gain eventually over time if you put effort and energy into it,” Vishnyakova said.