Laurel High School has been part of the NASA HUNCH program since its founding in 2005 — one of just three schools that launched what has since grown into a 300-school initiative across 40 states. HUNCH, which stands for High school students United with NASA to Create Hardware, tasks students with building real components for the International Space Station. Leading that charge at Laurel for two decades was Florence Gold, a math and science teacher who came to education at 48, built the program from scratch with three dedicated students, and forged early partnerships with Cenex Refinery, the Laurel Airport, and the Billings Engineer Society to get it off the ground. Gold has since grown into her role as NASA HUNCH Academy Manager and Western and NE Region Manager — but as of December 31, she's retiring, and she had one person in mind for her successor.

That person is Ayla Grandpre, a former student Gold first met in 2008 when fifth-graders from Graff Elementary's Gifted and Talented program visited LHS on Fridays to participate in HUNCH. Ayla was hooked from the start. The two stayed in touch across the years — through Grandpre's military service and her pursuit of an engineering degree at the University of Virginia — until Gold sent a decisive text in March 2025: "Call me, I have a plan. I want you to be my replacement." Grandpre has nothing but good things to say about HUNCH. For her, it was life changing — the decision felt natural. "Without HUNCH, I wouldn't even realize working in space was an option," she said.

Together, Flo and Ayla represent exactly what the program is meant to inspire: a pipeline of curious, capable people who see space not as a distant dream but as a real destination. Gold has continued expanding that pipeline, developing investigation stations for kindergarten through eighth grade students in 2025, and Montana now boasts five HUNCH programs statewide. Their shared belief in students drives everything. "I think a lot of people undervalue high school students and what they can do," Grandpre said. Gold puts it simply: "NASA needs every occupation. If we're going to the moon, we need it all."

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