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From a very young age, Kaitlyn Sahatoo was taught to reach for the stars. Her mother, Betsy Deonarine-Sahatoo, recalled a promise she made years ago.

“She told me, ‘Mommy, I want to go to the moon one day.’ She will look up at the night sky and say, ‘Mommy I can see the stars. I will take you to the moon one day,” she shared.

At 19 years old, the former Parvati Girls’ Hindu College student is turning that childhood dream into something far more tangible.

Sahatoo flew out to India on Tuesday to represent Trinidad and Tobago in Space Kidz India’s Mission ShathiSAT. Mission ShathiSAT is a global, all-girls space and satellite technology initiative. The programme unites girls from over 100 countries to train in space science and build a satellite.

For the Gasparillo resident, the opportunity is a natural extension of a fascination that began when she was young.

“Space has always been something that interested me since I was smaller, just naturally being curious about the stars, about the moon, how it’s there, and why it’s there, and why we can see it from space,” she said.

A former leader of her school’s astronomy club, Sahatoo first heard about the ShakthiSAT programme during a school career fair. She and several of her friends enrolled in the programme, which consisted of 21 online modules covering areas including mathematics, physics and satellite design. However, completing the programme was no small feat.

The course was self-paced and had to be completed outside of school hours. Officials for the programme shared that records showed Sahatoo had spent more than 500 hours on the course, already setting her apart from other candidates.

Only three participants met the required completion threshold to make the shortlist. They were then invited to an interview, where candidates were assessed on qualities including leadership, teamwork, resilience, ethics, global citizenship, personal values and their passion for space.

For Sahatoo, the moment she discovered she had been selected was almost surreal.

“I opened the email and read the first line, and it said, ‘Congratulations, Kaitlyn, you have been selected to represent Trinidad and Tobago.’ In that moment I forgot everything, and was just like, is this happening in real life? But now that reality has actually hit, I think back on all the hard work I did, and it actually paid off into something way greater than I would have thought of,” she recalled.

Behind that achievement, Sahatoo has had the steady support of her family. Her mother said the family has always made itself available to help her pursue her ambitions, whether that meant providing encouragement, making time for her studies or simply being there when she needed something.

“You have to sacrifice your time and be dedicated towards it and you have to be there to give them that moral support. So while they’re studying, I’m crocheting. If she wants something to munch on, or she wants a mini drink, I will go and get it for her. My children are my first priority so I give them all the support ,” Deonarine-Sahatoo said.

Now a medical student at the University of the West Indies, Sahatoo said she is not leaving her interest in medicine behind as she ventures into the space field.

“I want to do something like maybe combine space and medicine, because space and medicine actually have a lot more correlation than we can think about it. So, it can help us with telemedicine, disease surveillance and remote management during natural disasters of our medical equipment and medical team when they go out to the rural areas. So, when I come back, hopefully we can work on something like disease surveillance and remote surveillance and stuff like that, so we could improve the access to healthcare in all of Trinidad, including the most remote areas,” she explained.

Sahatoo will spend ten days in India, working hands-on with scientists and other delegates to build a satellite, which will be sent to orbit in space.

Soroptimist International of Port of Spain Treasurer and appointed T&T Ambassador for the ShakthiSAT mission Donna Scoon-Moses told Guardian Media, they also have high hopes for Sahatoo.

“It was only after Kaitlyn was selected, we realised that Parvati High School has the first and only Junior Soroptimist Club in the country and she was actually the lead in that club. So, she already exhibits the qualities of a Suroptimist. And I am hoping that Kaitlyn is able to see how she can marry her medical field with space studies, because they are not mutually exclusive,” she said.

However, Scoon-Moses believes Sahatoo’s journey is about more than one student’s ambitions. For Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean, she said, opportunities such as ShakthiSAT provide a chance to begin building a presence in an industry where the region has yet to establish itself.

“Space technology is really picking up a pace right now throughout the world. We in Trinidad and Tobago right now are not seated at the table where the decisions are being made. And so, we have to train up some people to contribute to the sector and the decisions that are being made about the sector. So, if we encourage these young women and we strengthen our whole STEM ecosystem, then we are doing an incredible job for the Caribbean” she noted.

Making those opportunities possible, however, also requires investment. Scoon-Moses said corporate support has been critical to getting Sahatoo and the wider team to India. She noted that ANSA McAL contributed $21,500 towards Sahatoo’s airfare and the costs associated with supporting the programme’s participants.

Meanwhile, Sahatoo continues to serve as an inspiration for many girls across T&T, who are also reaching for the stars.