Space-bound with Yuri Labuca: How can perspective change your life?
In this episode, Grace Khachaturian sits down with Yuri Labuca, a senior in mechanical engineering in the UIC College of Engineering and a recent NASA intern. Labuca shares his journey from the Philippines to the U.S. and how it influenced his fascination with space. He moved to California in 2013 and later to Chicago; through lived experiences, his perspective evolved to focus on making the world better. Labuca‘s NASA internship reinforced his passion for discovery and his ambition to become an astronaut.
Key takeaways:
- Rewriting our mental map helps integrate diverse experiences and improve perspective.
- Drive lies in the daily choices we make — consistently deciding to act in ways that move us closer to our goals.
- NASA demonstrated that success requires unique contributions from every individual.
Biography
Labuca, a senior studying mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, recently completed an internship with NASA. During his time at UIC, he has been actively involved in several student organizations, including the Astronomy Club, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and Chicago Engineering Design Team, where he further developed his technical skills and passion for innovation. Labuca’s journey from the Philippines to the U.S. has given him a broadened perspective, influenced his ambition to go to space and sparked a deep desire to make a difference.
Show notes
Grace Khachaturian 00:00
Welcome to “This is UIC,” the official podcast of the University of Illinois Chicago. I’m Grace Khachaturian, and with each episode, we delve into the stories that drive us to unpack our most compelling questions. As Chicago’s only public research university, UIC is leading the way to create and inspire a better world. This is UIC.
Today, we’re joined by UIC student Yuri Labuca. Yuri is a senior in mechanical engineering at the UIC College of Engineering, and recently completed an internship with NASA, an incredible milestone on his journey toward his lifelong ambition of becoming an astronaut. Yuri was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States at the age of 10. The challenges and opportunities he encounteredduring childhood and along the way to NASA sparked a deep passion to make a meaningful difference in the world. Today we’re excited to unpack some of that journey and how it profoundly shaped his purpose and perspective. Yuri, we’re so excited to have you with us on the podcast today.
Yuri Labuca 01:02
Thank you for having me.
Grace Khachaturian 01:03
Absolutely. OK, Yuri, before we dive into your story and your experience as a NASA intern, I would love to understand your why.
Yuri Labuca 01:11
Yeah, so I was born in the Philippines, and this why sort of got seated when I was around 6 to 8 years old. I looked up to the sky and wondered, OK, what? What’s out there? I wonder, What’s out there? Because I saw a lot of stars there. The culture around the Philippines was sort of like, How can you be better? So, that’s sort of my “why.” And I connected and tied that way to going to space. But then I immigrated, for better opportunities,to California when I was in fifth grade. This was in 2013, and then around 2016, I then moved to a suburb of Chicago. When I went through all of these different perspectives of life, these different environments, I moved, I think, around six or seven schools. This why evolved into, How can I make this world better? Once I knew about all these different places, had to meet a lot of different people, it sort of evolved into a more empathetic perspective. How can I make the lives of everyone here better, as best as I could, with my talent, and my drive?
Grace Khachaturian 02:20
Yeah, I love that. What was it like for you immigrating to the United States from the Philippines?
Yuri Labuca 02:29
I’ll have to say, it was very exciting at first. I remember being on the flight. It was hose 13 hours — it was crazy. It was a lot of firsts for me. But then things got more complicated. As I soon realized, I was a very exotic stranger to a lot of people over there, because people talk to me as though I was the immigrant kid. I spoke very rough English then. So, it was very complicated.
Grace Khachaturian 03:03
And at what point did you kind of remember your passion, your interest for space?
Yuri Labuca 03:11
It took until 2022. I was on a camping trip with friends in Wisconsin. I remember waking up in the middle of night and then going outside and looking up. Big Dipper, the constellation was there. I was like, that’s really cool — I wonder what’s out there? It was sort of a very full circle moment from when I was 6and 8. And I remember myself. back then, and I felt that that version of me was there when I looked up at the sky again — I’ve never seen stars this bright.And i felt that was symbolic.
Grace Khachaturian 03:49
It’s so cool that that younger perspective reemerged in that moment in 2022 and ignited enough of an interest and passion for you to pursue it to the degree of NASA, the highest level. So, tell us a little bit about your NASA internship.
Yuri Labuca 04:10
When I first got the acceptance, I was like — This is not real. And I sort of reserved that thinking until I got there. I was like, OK, this is real, like, day to day. I had projects of my own that were supervised by my mentor. They’re about to launch their second rocket to the moon. This is Artemis II Marshall, which is my center that works with the rocket technology to be able to send it. I mean, it’s like three centers contributing to at least one mission, but that one mission is so extraordinary that people will stop. People around the world will stop and watch.
Grace Khachaturian 04:51
Sounded like you got to speak with astronauts. Tell me about that.
Yuri Labuca 04:56
It’s very inspiring. I got myself to ask a question. And the question was: What was it like? What were your first thoughts like going to space for the first time and seeing Earth down below? And each of them said the same thing — it was very moving to them, and it’s very unexpected, because seeing Earth with your own eyes is not the same as seeing Earth from pictures. That’s what both of them said.And both of them that I’m mentioning were astronaut Don Pettit and astronaut Suni Williams. Changed the way they both looked at things.
Grace Khachaturian 05:36
How does your acceptance into NASA change your self-perception?
Yuri Labuca 05:41
It definitely allowed me the confidence to say to myself, I can live on my own. I can hold a job, and my job is NASA. So, like, I was like, OK, I can do this. It affirmed that passion that I could actually reachhere, because I remember doing the calculations for the acceptance rate of my cohort over there. I found out it was like .06-something percent. I was like, Wow, I made, I’m part of this cohort?
Grace Khachaturian 06:14
Isn’t it remarkable what you’ve walked through, and you find yourself at NASA?
Yuri Labuca 06:22
Yeah, I have a hard time believing it myself, like, I’m just a regular person, but so are the other, my colleagues at NASA, they’re all regular people. You know, being nobody in the Philippines, basically togetting here at Marshall, .06 percent chance, or something like that. I thought to myself, I need something to commemorate this. I felt that, in the jacket that my mom and I made, there was a design to it. I collected a bunch of mission patches at Marshall, some that were from the astronauts and their respective missions. On the left side, it was all of the achievements that I got. The right side representsthe future. I felt that was the most succinct representation of where I was — that I was standing here in the present with a past that was kind of impressive, in the future that was optimistic.
Grace Khachaturian 07:32
That’s so cool. What a very special and symbolic item to carry with you throughout these experiences, as well as adding to it is, is a pretty unique aspect of that. Throughout our time today, you’ve talked about how you hope to make the world just a better place. What impact do you hope to have?
Yuri Labuca 07:53
Anything that, I don’t know, for example, would lessen inequality or make more vulnerable children have, that’llprofoundly change the life of a fellow being. I think that’d be satisfying to me. I moved to a country that is more abundant than that country, and that shaped my perspective into thinking, I should do something about it.
Grace Khachaturian 08:19
How do you believe perspective can change a life?
Yuri Labuca 08:24
There’s more to this world than just thinking about yourself. I believe in the interest of everyone, in all sorts of different people that are different from you. When you start to think about their perspective, and you start to empathize with them, so your perspective tilts slowly to a more empathetic standpoint, which, that’s what I believe. You always have to rewrite that mental map, because not rewriting it would be a injustice to yourself and to others, because you’re not experiencing other lives. A more full life experience deliberately rewrites that mental math so that you can account for these other life experiences and have them change your own perspective.
Grace Khachaturian 09:16
It’s inspiring just how much of a true desire you have to make the world a better place, and how NASA and your desire for space is kind of all woven into that overarching ambition. Yuri, we love to end these episodes on a fun note. So, if you were to pick a song that best represents your story, what song would you pick?
Yuri Labuca 09:42
The song is named ”Go,” and the artist is Public Service Broadcasting.
Yuri Labuca 10:03
The reason why I picked this song — it’s so cool— they spliced together audios from the Apollo 11 radio broadcasts into a fun, uplifting song that definitely resonated with me, because it’s that whole youthful perspective that they tried to capture for kids watching the Apollo 11 landing and launch, and that transpired to me. It’s just something that is very uplifting.
Grace Khachaturian 10:33
Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time today, Yuri. Learn more about Yuri’s NASA experience in the show notes at today.uic.edu
Thanks for listening to “This is UIC,” the official podcast of the University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago’s only public research university. Until next time, visit today.uic.edu to uncover how UIC is inspiring a better world.
