You Need the Bright Stuff--Astronaut : Convention: A shuttle and Spacelab flier tells Latino and Indian students to ‘take on tough subjects like mathematics, physics and engineering’ to realize their dreams.

As a youngster in Costa Rica, Franklin Chang-Diaz built his own spaceship from a cardboard box and pretended to travel to outer space. He would reach some distant planet, get out of the box, meet the aliens and return home in time for dinner.

By age 30, Chang-Diaz was a NASA astronaut.

On Friday, he told more than 300 high school students at the Red Lion Inn what it took for that dream to happen. Chang-Diaz, now 40, was the keynote speaker on opening day at the ninth annual convention of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, a national group that seeks to encourage Latinos and American Indian students to pursue research and science careers.

The four-day convention features researchers, physicians, professors and college graduate students in symposiums dealing with issues that range from problems facing minority scientists to restoring and protecting the environment.

Chang-Diaz, who has flown on Spacelab and shuttle missions, told his audience that it is a necessity for minority students to dream and reach for the stars.

He said that he was motivated to excel by his father but that he recognizes that many minority children do not receive the same kind of encouragement and have few role models.

Lauro Trejo, 18, of Woodrow Wilson High School in Los Angeles, said seeing Chang-Diaz up close makes such aspirations tangible.

“Unless you really hear people like him and see them in the flesh and blood, you don’t have that sense of realism,” said Trejo, who plans to study mechanical engineering in college. “It’s nice to see there are others who have made it and laid down the tracks for us.”

Chang-Diaz told the students that they could succeed in sciences if they are dedicated.

“The key words are study and hard work,” he said after his speech. “If they really want to do it, they have to take on tough subjects like mathematics, physics and engineering.”

Eloy Rodriguez, a professor of cell biology and phytochemical toxicology at UC Irvine, said that he did not meet a Latino scientist until he was 25 and that conventions such as this are important.

“It’s more than saying, ‘Here’s someone that looks like me or talks like me,’ ” Rodriguez said. “It’s having someone to relate to and be sympathetic to your needs.”

Organizers said about 1,200 people are registered to participate in the convention.