October 9, 2026 By Community Editor Erin Elefante
Elementary students across Hingham Public Schools were treated to an exciting visit from Astronaut Jonny Kim on Thursday, October 8th. Fresh off of eight months aboard the International Space Station, Kim visited all four Hingham elementary schools and shared stories, photos, and videos from his time in space.
The son of South Korean immigrants, Kim enlisted in the Navy in 2002 and went on to serve as a Navy SEAL on more than 100 combat missions in the Middle East, earning a Silver Star and Bronze Star for valor. While serving in the Navy, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Diego with a degree in mathematics before earning his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He later completed a medical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and became both a physician and naval aviator—one of just 79 people in Navy history to earn the Aerospace Medicine Dual Designator. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017, Kim spent months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025 as part of Expeditions 72/73.
The students were given this incredible opportunity through Hingham resident and fellow Navy Seal Dave Dauphinais, who invited Kim and coordinated with Superintendent Kathryn Roberts to arrange the special presentations at the schools today.
On board the ISS, Kim was testing medicine and drugs in space, while also monitoring the health of those onboard. “Everything we [NASA] do in space is for the betterment of mankind,” he said.
Kim narrated footage of takeoff and shared photos, videos, and kid-pleasing anecdotes from his time aboard the ISS. Each astronaut was allowed to receive a small package with food from loved ones, and he requested “all the Sour Patch Kids and Spam his family could fit in the box.” The astronauts entertained themselves playing soccer by blowing ping pong balls, decorating cakes, and he even dressed as a Fruit Ninja for Halloween. Describing how you had to zip yourself into a sleeping bag attached to the wall when sleeping so that you didn’t float into another part of the space station had the kids giggling, and the entire room filled with oohs and ahhs when images of sunsets, hurricanes, and the Bahamas from space came onto the screen. The kids were completely enraptured with Kim’s presentation, and almost every hand in the room shot up when the time for questions came.
The children wanted to know if he knew he wanted to be an astronaut when he was a kid (not yet), where he would want to go if he went on another mission (Mars), what it was like to blast off the first time (“like being on the best roller coaster”), what was hard to do in space (learning Russian, opening bags, and going to the bathroom), and what advice he would give a kid who wants to work in STEM (“be curious and ask questions – you can learn anything”).
Kim left the students with an inspiring message. “Start with a dream. We all start off somewhere, and in order to accomplish great things, we need to have a vision for the future and be inspired.” He credits his mother with encouraging him to be his very best and understand the importance of challenging yourself in order to grow. He reminded them that failure and adversity are a part of the journey, but that “failure is an important ingredient to getting better.” Few have the opportunity to meet a real astronaut, and you could feel the inspiration, wonder, and big dreams Kim left children across Hingham with in that special moment.