Joshua Dobbs has been an athlete since he was a little boy, but in between those moments on the field and court, he was looking to the sky.

“I was around seven years old, and I think they were launching four rockets a year at the time, so I started learning about the history of the space program and seeing the rockets, and that really sparked my interest,” he says. “My first love was aviation – how they fly, why they fly.”

Growing up, Joshua played sports year-round in his hometown of Alpharetta, Georgia – basketball, baseball, football – but he was also a natural at math and science. Fortunately, he was never made to choose between his talents and interests, so even when it came to playing quarterback at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, he was eager to study Aerospace Engineering and graduate with a 4.0 GPA. He credits the support of his parents, teachers, and coaches for giving him a strong foundation from which to build a diverse and successful life.

And it’s that same energy he pours into supporting young people through his nonprofit, ASTROrdinary Dobbs Foundation. While the organization works with myriad nonprofits, such as East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Knoxville HonorAir, and the Wounded Warrior Project, Joshua was keen to partner again with Girls Inc. of TN Valley and help facilitate a condensed, one-day Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

“NASA was definitely a thought when starting the foundation and thinking about who I wanted to benefit. Through my time externing with NASA in 2020, I got to see the first launch of SpaceX, and I was looking around and there were senators there and the president was there, but there were kids there too,” he says. “Seeing their faces, watching the astronauts load up… A trip to the Rocket Center was a huge trip and a notch in the belt to eventually get them to a launch.”

While Joshua Dobbs went to Adult Space Camp during his third year playing for the NFL, Amanda Ingle, executive director of Girls Inc. of TN Valley, went to Space Camp when she was only nine years old. Pulling together this event with the ASTROrdinary Dobbs Foundation was a literal dream come true.

“I was talking to Stephanie Dobbs, his mom, who’s our contact person at the foundation, and we were talking about Space Camp. I told her how transformative it was for me. It made such an impression, and while I didn’t go into a STEM-related field and stuck with the soft sciences, I still took astronomy in college. It instilled a lot of curiosity in me, feeling like science and tech and space-related careers were accessible to me,” says Amanda. “I wanted our girls to do it, and Joshua is so connected to the Space & Rocket Center, and I was already looking to do some aerospace curriculum with the girls at our summer camp.”

The plans came together, and on Saturday, June 22, approximately 30 girls hopped on a bus and rode from Oak Ridge to Huntsville. They started at NASA in the Park, a free and public event presented by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Joshua met them there, and together they engaged with the various hands-on activities and learned about the Artemis Mission.

Then, the group loaded on the bus again, this time with Joshua aboard, and off they went to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center for the Space Camp experience.

“They got to see the history of the space program, the Saturn V rocket on display, and talk to engineers and scientists,” says Joshua. “The older girls were put into a survival lab, given a dirty cup of water and random materials to learn how to work together to build a filtration system so the water could be drinkable. The younger girls got a chance to work with different chemicals to see what makes a propellant. I wasn’t leading, but I was there to support the girls. The teachers of the class asked some complex questions, and they could answer them.”

The deputy director of the flight center spoke to the group, and then they went to the planetarium to learn about the solar system. Finally, the group experienced mock astronaut training in the Multi-Axis Trainer and a simulation of moon gravity.

“This group of girls were all like me as a kid,” says Joshua. “They love space and are fascinated by things that fly. They’d done a lesson plan the week before, so they came prepared.”

It was a long day but well worth it.

“I thought they’d be comatose on the way back, but they weren’t,” says Amanda, laughing. “One of the six-year-old girls was talking about what she’d learned, and I just watched her. The excitement on her face… It’s great to be intentional about our programs. The girls doing the labs at Space Camp were going through Newton’s Three Laws of Motion, which they’d just learned about before they went, so they were able to be engaged that way. I’m happy when we can make a cross-curriculum learning experience.”

As for the future, both Amanda and Joshua say they hope this can be a regular event.

“For many of our girls, this is how they get to do things like this,” says Amanda, “so I’d love to continue this level of opportunity for our girls.”

“The goal is to make this a routine trip, whatever it looks like,” Joshua says. “I’m in conversations with NASA and even commercial companies, like Blue Origin out of Texas. This is the start of something special.”

While Joshua Dobbs continues his career in the NFL, he’s keeping a foot in aerospace. In fact, he’s currently working on his pilot’s license while following the latest in innovation for space flight and exploration.

“Commercial companies have really changed the trajectory of where NASA can go. They’re pushing the limits, and they don’t have as much public pressure as NASA does. So, we’re able to have a rocket complete a mission and take a ton of data from it. Then, you can truly innovate quicker,” says Joshua. “The first person to go to Mars is already living and breathing. It’s here and happening quickly.”

As for making an impact on young people in East Tennessee, especially when it comes to STEM-related fields and careers, Girls Inc. could use more help.

“It’s such a game-changer when you have people who are familiar with working with children as well as the subject matter,” says Amanda. “We’re a nonprofit organization serving more than 700 girls in our community every year. I would love to have this level of opportunity on a regular basis.”

Girls Inc. of TN Valley was established as a girls-only sports program in Anderson County in 1976. After moving into their current facility in Oak Ridge in 2000, the Girls, Inc. affiliate shifted its focus to STEM programming, academic success, and career readiness. The affiliate incorporated in Knox County in 2015 and Blount County in 2018. The nonprofit is dedicated to delivering life-changing programs and experiences to “equip girls to overcome serious barriers to grow up strong, smart, and bold.”

Get involved by visiting GirlsInctnv.org and AstrordinaryDobbsFoundation.org

“The goal is to make this a routine trip, whatever it looks like …This is the start of something special.” – Joshua Dobbs

“For many of our girls, this is how they get to do things like this… so I’d love to continue this level of opportunity for our girls.” – Amanda Ingle