Only after a lifetime of male professors and presidents and harassment do I understand how special and unique a fellowship like the Brooke Owens Fellowship Program (BOFP) is. I have never met so many inspirational leaders — current and future — in my life, and I would encourage any young woman considering a career in aerospace to apply to this program in the fall (website: http://www.brookeowensfellowship.org/).
The program’s namesake is a much beloved woman in aerospace: Dawn Brooke Owens. She was a rising star in the aerospace community who lost her battle with cancer in 2016 far too soon. Three of her friends, Lori Garver, Cassie Lee, and William Pomerantz coalesced together to continue her legacy beyond her passing, and created a program that gives professional experience to young women in aerospace (program participants are called Fellows, or more colloquially, Brookies).
Part of the program includes a five-day summit in Washington, D.C. The three founders managed to cram in so many activities. Our jam-packed itinerary included: the Future Space Leaders Conference on Capitol Hill, luncheons with various space companies, reception and banquets with Spoken Word introductions of each Fellow, a Grand Challenge project and presentation in front of subject matter experts, mentorship one-on-one sessions, astronaut visits, a pirate ship cruise, and a pool party!
On Saturday we presented our Grand Challenge solutions. My problem was coastal relief, and our solution was to involve university outreach with data collection by launching university weather-monitoring cubesats. The day was followed by a behind-the-scenes tour of the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air and Space center led by the director of the Smithsonian, and then a pool party at Lori Garver’s house. Sunday was the last part of the Summit, with a final brunch with all the Brookies and a feedback session for the founders.
The summit started Wednesday evening with a pizza party and candy (apparently Brooke had a huge sweet tooth), which served as a casual introduction to all forty of this year’s Brookies.
On Thursday we started the morning early with a trip to Capitol Hill for the Future Space Leaders Conference. The conference began with a fireside chat with the Secretary of Commerce, followed by panels on space commerce and national security. I got to chat with many decision-makers in space policy while we all waited in line for coffee and tea. One of the coolest people we heard from was by U.S. Senator Patty Murray, who was elected to a seat in 1992 as Washington State’s first female U.S. Senator and is now the highest-ranking woman in the Senate as the Senate Assistant Minority Leader. Our participation in the Conference culminated with a luncheon; I sat with policy people from the Aerospace Corporation and definitely learned a lot from them about space policy.
In the afternoon, we were debriefed on our Grand Challenge assignments. This year there were two challenges, one to solve the orbital debris problem, and the other to use space to provide coastal relief. The Brookies were split into teams of six and within the next two days, were to present their solution to subject matter experts in the field.
Wrapping up Thursday evening was a reception and banquet where each Fellow gave a spoken word introduction of themselves. This was honestly one of the highlights of the entire Summit. Brooke loved spoken word, and many of the mentors personally knew Brooke and teared up when hearing everyone’s poetry.
On Friday we had a mentor round robin. Each Fellow was paired with two or three pre-selected mentors for a half hour to discuss whatever we wanted. Following the round robin, our Grand Challenge teams were given a three-hour session to interview subject matter experts and refine our solution. Then we had lunch with astronaut Jose Fernandez, who has one of the most inspirational rags-to-riches-type stories that I have ever heard. His parents were dirt-poor migrant workers with a third grade level education, and he worked hard and after 11 rejects finally became an astronaut. After lunch, we attended two out of three breakout sessions: Engineering led by Debra Faktor, Policy led by France A. Córdova, and Entrepreneurship led by Carissa Christensen. Afterwards, we had a delicious pasta dinner at the Watergate hotel with a discussion on gender, and partied on a pirate boat cruise along the Potomac.
On Saturday we presented our Grand Challenge solutions. My problem was coastal relief, and our solution was to involve university outreach with data collection by launching university weather-monitoring cubesats. The day was followed by a behind-the-scenes tour of the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air and Space center led by the director of the Smithsonian, and then a pool party at Lori Garver’s house. Sunday was the last part of the Summit, with a final brunch with all the Brookies and a feedback session for the founders.
This summit has been unforgettable. I am so very thankful for Generation Orbit’s work in cultivating and sponsoring the next generation of women engineers, policymakers, and leaders. I am so very thankful to Brooke and the founders for creating this unique and empowering experience. I am so very thankful to the 39 new lifelong friends that I have met over the past five days. And I know that I, through my work as a student and a future CEO or roboticist or astronaut, that I will create similar experiences for the next generation of aspiring astronauts and students.
