WATCH: Florida Tech Scholar-Athlete Spotlight Recognizes Basketball Player George Nehma

Nehma majors in aerospace engineering

WATCH: Florida Tech’s Scholar-Athlete Spotlight features Panther men’s basketball player George Nehma, a junior forward/center from Sydney, Australia.

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Being a scholar-athlete at Florida Tech takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication to excel both in the classroom and on the field.

In this Scholar-Athlete Spotlight, we feature Panther men’s basketball player George Nehma, a junior forward/center from Sydney, Australia.

Nehma, named to the Sunshine State Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll in 2021 and the North Atlantic Conference All-Academic Team in 2020 while at SUNY-Canton, figures to play a prominent role for the Panthers this upcoming season in their pursuit of an SSC championship.

A path to stars helped draw Nehma to Florida Tech, so we sat down with him to ask him what he’s thought of his time here and how he hopes his degree can take him where others dream.

■ What is your major at Florida Tech? Why did you choose this direction for your education and is this something you always wanted to pursue?
■ So, my major is aerospace engineering and the reason I chose Florida Tech is because of the repertoire that aerospace engineering has here.

It’s a well-known program and the field is something that’s always interested me like space travel, that sort of stuff. Designing, building rockets, that also itself is really, really cool to me.

■ In regards to this major, what made you choose Florida Tech?
■ The location is awesome here being next to the beach. At my old school, I was in northern New York, which was cold. So having a beach here reminds me a little bit of home, which is nice. But also, just knowing how well the professors teach and how prestigious it is here.

■ What’s an average day of study/classes like for you?
■ An average day for me in terms of classes is busy, I’m on 12 credits. So, I go about two to three classes a day, they’re usually mid-day, 12 to two. They’re pretty intensive, so you must always be able to concentrate but then obviously I have other things. I work at the Clemente Center beforehand and then I have practice in the afternoon. So, whenever I can fit in homework, that’s what I try and do.

■ How do you plan to use your degree after graduation?
■ Hopefully, I can try and get a job around the Cape Canaveral area. NASA, SpaceX, really anywhere to try to get into the rocket industry–designing prototyping and building rockets.

■ How do you balance everything during basketball season?
■ During the season, it’s just a lot of time management. That’s a big key for me, just making sure I’m staying organized and ahead of my homework. Because I’ll usually work in the morning, go to classes, and then practice is 3:00 to 6:30 PM. So, I really don’t have much time other than the late evenings to study.

■ What are some exciting projects you are able to work on?
■ One of the big projects we’re working on right now is our senior design as part of the NASA RMC group. So, we’re designing a robot to autonomously mine on the moon and we’re going to test that at NASA in April of 2022. Hopefully, we’ll have a prototype and a robot completed soon that we can use them.

■ How has being a collegiate athlete prepared you for the work you are currently doing? What traits do you take from the field that help you be successful?
■ I think the biggest thing is teamwork. As an engineer, there’s a lot of collaboration, and just working with all groups of people. So, it’s great to be able to take the teamwork and leadership skills that I learned in basketball and apply them to engineering.

■ What advice would you give another athlete/prospective athlete who is looking to enter the world of aerospace?
■ I think you really have to know what you want to do. Make sure this is the thing for you because it’s not easy to do aerospace engineering and play varsity athletics at the same time. So, just making sure you time manage and if you really are passionate about it, you’ll make it through fine.

■ What are you looking forward to most for the 2021-22 season?
■ I think just seeing guys get out there and play basketball on a full season. Let’s just see what we can do because I think we have an unbelievable squad. I just don’t see us losing many games, so hopefully, we can do really well and get out there and play.

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