“If you had to choose one word to describe your legacy,” asks Scott Biedermann '05, '20, vice president for development and alumni relations, “One word—what would it be?”

 Alumnus and former NASA astronaut Jose Hernández ’84 paused for a moment, looking out at the hundreds of people making up the audience, including K-12 students and community members, in Faye Spanos Concert Hall on the Stockton Campus before answering.

“Tenacity.”

Telling his story as part of University of the Pacific’s Pacific Presidential Speaker Series, tenacity and perseverance underscore each of Hernández’s many accomplishments.

Hernandez said he was a good student during his time at Franklin High School, but coming to Pacific into a four-year engineering curriculum was challenging. 

“I struggled,” he said. “That first semester, it just wasn't there. I had calculus. I had physics, plus an elective. Man, I was hurt. I was also balancing working part-time on my father’s farm.

“The only thing that stopped me from quitting was imagining the face of my parents. Picturing their reaction if I said I was quitting after they sacrificed so much. I couldn’t do that. I quickly went into survival mode, and I did three strategic things that I think helped me.”

The first thing he did was set up a study group. Then, he went to the Community Involvement Program, which provides scholarships and support for first-generation college students from Stockton, and secured tutoring in calculus and in physics. He then took advantage of professors' office hours. 

“They got tired of me. I was there all the time,” he joked. “But at the very end of the semester, there was this sense of respect for having the tenacity.” 

The perseverance that helped him earn a degree from Pacific carried on into his aspirations of becoming an astronaut. 

Hernandez was rejected 11 times by NASA before being accepted to the astronaut program. Each time, Hernandez says he learned a new skill and tried again, going so far as to learn Russian and travel to Siberia to set him apart from other applicants. 

“I latched onto a new project in the nuclear nonproliferation arena that took me to Russia, not because I wanted to get to know Siberia in the middle of winner, but because Russia and the U.S. had signed an agreement to build the International Space Station, and I saw this as my way to differentiate myself from the competition. So, five and a half years later, 26 trips to Siberia later, five years of studying the Russian language, that's when I finally got selected after applying for the 12th time.”

He spent 14 days in space in 2009 as a flight engineer aboard Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-128.

Since his trip to space, he has served as the Executive Director of Strategic Operations at MEI Technologies in Texas and is currently CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering, LLC. He started the José M. Hernández Reaching for the Stars Foundation which partners with Pacific to host the annual Science Blast, which gives hundreds of local students the opportunity to participate in hands-on workshops exploring science, technology, engineering, arts, agriculture & climate change and mathematics in a university setting. In 2023, an Amazon Prime biopic told the story of his journey from migrant farm worker to astronaut. 

Tenacity, determination and perseverance have been the keys to Hernandez’s success. Now, those virtues, and his Tiger spirit, are something he’s passing down to his son. 

“My son graduated from Pacific, and earned his bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering, because he wants to become and astronaut. He got his first rejection already, and I told him, ‘Don't bother me until you're on your 12th.’" 

Other advice Hernandez would give to anyone trying to achieve their dreams centers on what he calls his father’s “five-ingredient recipe.”

“First, define your purpose in life. What is it that you want to be? Recognize how far you are from that goal. Draw yourself a road map from where you're at to where you want to go,” he said. “You need to know how to get there. Prepare yourself according to the challenge you pick. Develop a work ethic. Second to none, sprinkle perseverance with that. Mix it up, and that's the recipe to succeed.” 

The Pacific Presidential Speaker Series is an opportunity to hear from top thought leaders on key issues in education and society. Previous speakers include Pulitzer prize-winning musician Gabriela Lena Frank, national higher education thought leader Cathy Davidson, award-winning senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour Judy Woodruff and author Mónica Guzmán. See past speakers.