Academically, I earned both my undergraduate and master’ s degrees in aerospace engineering at Cornell University. During my internships, I worked on rocket production at Blue Origin, cockpit display systems at Boeing, and astronaut life support systems at VAST. These are the systems that keep humans alive in space. Each role showed me a different side of the industry. None of them required me to be perfect. They required curiosity, teamwork, and the courage to try. That is the part I want you to remember.
You don’ t need to have everything figured out. You don’ t need to be the best at one thing. You just need to start, stay curious, and say yes to opportunities that scare you a little.
Have fun. Do cool things. Try the class, apply for the program, ask the question, and build the project. It is rewarding in ways you can’ t imagine yet.
One day, I hope to leave a mark not just by going to space, but by showing the next generation, and maybe even our future alien friends, what our species choses to do with our time here.
And maybe it all starts with a kid looking up at the sky and thinking, why not me?
12 | LET’ S GO AEROSPACE