2010 Distinguished Alumni Recipient

The Florida Association of Community Colleges Distinguished Alumni Awards recognize the many significant contributions of Florida’s community colleges and their graduates. The award is named after Governor LeRoy Collins to acknowledge his contributions to Florida’s community colleges. Each college receives and invitation to nominate an alumnus from only one of the following categories: Lifetime Achievement, Rising Star, and Against the Odds.

The 2010 Northwest Florida State College Rising Star Distinguished Alumni recipient was Ben Corbin. At twenty-two years of age, Ben might possibly have been the youngest nominee for the Rising Star award, and also one of the most deserving.

After graduating from Collegiate High School and the college with and Associate of Arts degree in 2004, his continuing education choice was aerospace engineering at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. While at UCF, Ben distinguished himself by working in a joint NASA and Mars Society research project open to only a few select students. After receiving his baccalaureate degree with minors in mathematics, physics, astronomy and space studies, he earned a master’s degrees in aerospace engineering and planetary science from MIT in Boston, MA. While at MIT, Ben served as a research assistant, and in his own words, was the “flight engineer for a suborbital rocket project that will carry an ultraviolet telescope above the atmosphere to look at Venus.” He also served as director of the Ultraviolet Vacuum Calibration Laboratory at MIT.

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