Stefan De Young

Note: This article is an Auto-biography.

Stefan De Young is a student of Lisgar Collegiate institute and a second-year member of the OCESS.

Meeting the OCESS

Stefan's involvement with the OCESS began in Gr. 8 when he encountered the OCESS Planetarium in the Cafeteria at Lisgar during the Gr. 8 night to encourage students to go to Lisgar. Stefan was thoroughly pleased that there was a Space and Space Science club at the school he was planning to attend, and so, he joined the OCESS in his Gr. 9 year, that being the 2003-2004 year. Unfortunately, violin lessons on Friday evenings made going to worksessions very difficult, and Stefan was forced to drop out of the organisation.

Return to the OCESS

The following year, having stopped taking violin lessons, Stefan rejoined the club with the intent of thoroughly enjoying himself. During the year, Stefan found that the club, despite the best of intentions, was disorganised and lacked a program that effectively educated its members about Space and Science, or even got them interested in such things. To attempt to right that wrong and prevent any newcomers from feeling disappointed, Stefan applied for the position of Mission Commander at the end of the 2004-2005 year.

Becoming Mission Commander (or not)

At the end of the 2004-05 year, three people applied for the position of Mission Commander. These three were Stephen Smith, Crystal Xiao, and Stefan De Young. It was at the end-of-year barbeque that the decision was made. Dr. Magwood asked Stefan to defer to Stephen and Crystals’ seniority and throw the race. He did. But he did so with the intent of running again the following year. His dream of the perfect Sim would not die.

Being an Astronaut

Stefan De Young has served on two missions as well as several training missions.

Venus

Stefan has visited Venus on two training missions, both mission alphas.

Mars

During the 2004-05 year, only two people requested to be astronauts. Jonathan Scothorn and Stefan were asked to fill out the crew, as having a crew of two would not be enough to man the Habitat effectively. And so, Stefan De Young, Mor Levy, Songyan Cai, and Jonathan Scothorn set off in 2005 for the red planet.

Titan, moon of Saturn

In the year 2006, Stefan De Young applied to be an astronaut for that year’s mission to Titan. Not only did he apply for that position, but for the first few months of the scholastic year, it was widely assumed that Stefan would occupy the role of Habitat Commander due to the unwillingness of either Mission Commander to fulfill that duty. Stephen Smith eventually decided to take on the job, and Stefan was given the rank of Lieutenant for the duration of the mission.

Stefan’s role on the 2006 mission was to have been robotics specialist. Unfortunately, the robot, Robbie, was found to be defective and was not brought along on the mission. Stefan then became the Chief Engineer and Tech Specialist.

Being a Director (or many)

Stefan was, during the 2005-06 year, a director. Or rather, he occupied several directorships.

PR Director

‘’’See main body article PR Director’’’

Stefan De Young revived the position of PR Director, that position having been empty for many years, at the beginning of the 2005 scholastic year in order to better promote the club. His only qualification was his charisma and his only job experience, besides experience in drama, was the masterpiece of an assembly that he wrote, directed, emceed, and acted in. Stefan’s main contribution to PR in the 2005-06 year was his Week o’ Hype that ran near the beginning of the year. The PR Department of Spacesim shortly afterwards fell into decay and disuse, and most further PR endeavours were taken on by Mission Commander Crystal Xiao.

Webmaster

‘’’See main body article Webmaster’’’

‘’’See also Spacesim.org’’’

Stefan De Young revived the position of Webmaster, that position having been empty during the 2004-05 year, at the beginning of the 05-06 year. Despite difficulties along the way, Stefan succeeded in reorganizing the website into a more efficient format and created a contract between Mission Commander and Webmaster binding them to a bi-monthly update schedule at the least.

Office Director

‘’’See main body article Office Director

The position of Office Director was created in 05-06 by Stefan De Young to both explain why he possessed a key to the office and to make sure that cleanliness was enforced.

Interim TFC

‘‘‘See Taskforces’’’

Stefan created the “New Deal for Taskforces” towards the end of 2006 in an attempt to make the club more efficient and conductive to work. Alex Foo was selected to occupy the role of TFC for the remainder of the 2006 year, while Stefan was appointed interim TFC in order to first introduce the club to the system and second to acquaint Alex with its inner workings.

Policy Nagger

Stefan has developed a habit of trying to make the Mission Commanders follow his ideas and lead. This is not his job, and he knows it, but Stefan cannot rest until he feels that Spacesim is as good as it can be. He anticipates many sleepless nights until he graduates, and beyond.

Becoming Mission Commander Mk. II

It is Stefan’s dream to become one of the Mission Commanders for the 2006-07 year, and he plans on applying when the application forms are released.