DALTON, Ga. — If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

Astronaut Eric Boe told teens from across Georgia’s 14th Congressional District recently not to be afraid to dream big.

Some 560 students from 26 high schools in 11 counties gathered at the Dalton Convention Center for the fifth annual Youth Leadership Summit hosted by U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger. Graves represents the 14th District, which includes Whitfield and Murray counties, as well as Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson, Paulding, Polk and Walker counties and the western part of Pickens County.

The students were nominated for the summit by their schools.

“You are here because someone saw something in you, something different, something they want to encourage,” said Graves. “They wanted to give you an opportunity to experience something you might not otherwise get to experience.”

Graves told the students he grew up living in a single-wide trailer on a tar-and-gravel road and now serves in Congress. He said that no matter their circumstances they can achieve great things.

That message was echoed by Boe, one of the speakers at the summit.

He told the students he grew up in the Atlanta area, graduating from Chamblee’s Henderson High School. As a youth, he said, he was fascinated by space and by flying. He was active in the Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.

“One of my biggest dreams was to be a pilot,” he said.

Boe was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in astronautical engineering. He later earned a master of science degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech. In the Air Force, he was a fighter pilot and test pilot before being selected in 2000 by NASA as an astronaut candidate.

He has been to space twice as the pilot of a space shuttle. And he has been selected by NASA as one of the first astronauts for commercial space flights.

Boe told the students that flying, especially in the space shuttle, is a team effort. A pilot, he said, depends on his teammates, both in the spacecraft and on the ground.

“Just about anything you do in life is going to be as part of a team,” he said. “You have to be a good teammate, someone that other people can rely on.”