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Student Spotlight: Lilly Crolius and Finding Beyond

Lilly Crolius, BA media arts and public relations ’20

Ever since Lilly was in the third grade, she wanted to be an astronomer. Her parents bought her books and subscriptions to astronomy magazines and her dad even bought her a telescope. Throughout high school, Lilly tried to discover other fields of interest — but her love for space always won out.  After graduating and moving to Boise from Massachusetts, she realized that though she was passionate about the world of astrophysics and astronomy, what she enjoyed most was educating other people about these subjects.

Lily decided to major in media arts and public relations. She hopes to make her passion for space and her love for educating others into a career. Her dream job is to work for labs and organizations such as NASA and SpaceX to write and talk about all the amazing work they’re doing. The experiences Lilly is having at Boise State are helping her to accomplish these goals.

When Lilly first started her media arts major she took a class called University Television Productions. She didn’t know what to expect from the course at first. By the end of the semester, her instructor, Nathan Snyder, discovered her love for science and offered her a chance to produce her own show. After working on her show during the summer, Finding Beyond was born.

During the process, she learned how much work it takes to organize every step of the process from brainstorming ideas to publishing her show. Her hard work has begun to pay off. So far, they’ve partnered with the Idaho National Laboratory and she even got to fly to the NASA Kennedy Space Center last summer as a guest. There, she was able to gather content for her show at the Space X Launch of the CRS-15 Rocket, which brought food and technology to the astronauts at the International Space Station.

Lilly said, “I’m very grateful to those that have helped me and continue helping me put my dream together. My advisory board consists of Harold Blackman, Boise State Interim VP Research and Economics, and the two astronauts we have in Boise, Barbara Morgan and Steve Swanson. Their support along with many others have been crucial to making Finding Beyond a reality. The universe is vast and filled with things overdue for discovery, and I want to be a part in pushing humanity towards the future.”