SAN ANTONIO - The halls are filled with signs that something out of this world is happening at Harris Middle School.

NEISD named the school after Dr. Bernard Harris, a San Antonio native, a doctor, a businessman and a real-life Skywalker.

Or his case, space walker.

On February 9th, 1995, Dr. Harris became the first African American to walk in space.

"This notion of traveling space when I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the moon. I wanted to follow in their footsteps and make my own."

Mallory Jones, an 8th grader at the school says, “there was a bunch of white male astronauts and for other people who had dreams that don't fit that description, they have to work extra hard."

Dr. Harris adds, “when I was thinking of becoming astronaut, I didn't see anyone that looked like me. I didn't even see any women, and so I finally decided that I’m going to have to be the first. Now we have probably twenty-four of us who have flown in space. So, thank God things have changed and the program has expanded.”

The school is filled with pieces of his history for the student’s future.

Pictures, artifacts. Even samples of space food. Cool souvenirs with a cooler message.

Emily Lair who is in the 8th grade at the school says, “it inspires me to do what I want to do because it shows me that he can do what he wanted to do. You have to work for it but then you'll have a chance to do it."

7th grader Cleophus Marshall points out that the word believe means you can do it.

“Believe that you can succeed in whatever you're trying to do because if you can't believe, there is no way it's going to happen."

In Dr. Harris's case it happened twice. He made two trips to space. The second included the historic walk that lasted 4 hours and 39 minutes.

“What a beautiful view. Look down and see the earth. Look up and see the heavens. You look down and you don't see any lines of latitude or longitude. No words. Just one unified Earth. It's how God sees us and we should all have the view. My hope is that we don't take divisions and stereotypes into space with us and our livelihood on Earth.”

Dr. Harris says the best souvenir he has from his mission is a picture he took of himself flashing the Texas Tech symbol of “guns up” with the Earth behind him.

Before Texas Tech, his journey to space began in a classroom on San Antonio’s east side.

His mom, who was a teacher, taught him life's greatest lesson. Which is now his lasting message to students.

“Education is a way to be lifted out of poverty which is what happened to us, and it's way to fulfill your dreams.”

The school’s eighth grade science chairman Shirley Lebron agrees.

“We are here for what we do our job, to push our kids to better themselves. What are you going to do? These are some options. What are you going to do in high school or college. It’s just giving them a little boost like where are you going with this, what do you want to do when you go to college and I think we do that well.”

Dr. Harris is proud to have the school named after him because in his words, “the young people at Harris Middle School grow up with my dreams and ambitions being realized in them.”

During his historic trip, the shuttle Discovery orbited the earth at 17-thousand miles per hour, which means Dr. Harris and the crew circled the planet every 90 minutes. So what else in life can top ? Here's his answer to that very question: