Dr. Janice E. Voss
Janice moved to Wilbraham, MA from Rockford, IL as a middle school student. Many in the Minnechaug Regional High School graduating class of 1973 have very distinct memories of the reserved yet self confident and brilliant “new girl”, who at the time was at least a full year younger than they were. Her academic ability immediately showed, as she excelled in every subject. When she had fulfilled all the requirements for graduation from Minnechaug, she graduated a year early with the class of ‘72.
Janice was selected for the NASA Space Program in 1991 and flew 5 missions, traveling a total of 18.8 million miles in 779 orbits over 49 days. She cited the 1962 Madeleine L’Engle novel A Wrinkle in Time as one of her first inspirations for becoming an astronaut and brought a copy on board STS-94, then gifted it to the author.
Janice passed away in 2012 at the far too young age of 55 from breast cancer. It is our desire, the Minnechaug Regional High School Class of 1973, her former friends and admirers, to preserve her memory with a scholarship to be awarded to a female Space Camp applicant, who demonstrates curiosity about our great universe, as Janice did.