After graduation, what's your next adventure?

I’m taking the spring to travel (to South Africa), do an internship (with Blue Origin in Seattle) and apply to grad school for the fall.

What about your next adventure are you most excited about?

I am most excited about travelingl to new locations where I’ve never been before and to be productive. I know I will be starting grad school somewhere in the fall and it will be great to not have to worry about homework for a good solid eight months.

Did you have any previous co-op internship or research experience that helped you get to this point?

I interned at JPL in the summer of 2015. It was a great experience because I got meet people in different divisions where I could ask about their hardware, their software, their mission operations. My mentor at JPL actually set up lunches with people who could give me different perspectives. I also did a summer internship at Orbital ATK where I focused on systems engineering, flight software, and control systems. Again, it was fun because I got to work in all three areas, and I definitely fell in love with control systems engineering. That’s what I’ll focus on in grad school. I got work on an actual simulator and to write code for an antenna modeling system that they still use. At Tech, I also worked on the RECONSO cubesat  and the Prox 1 cubesat.

How did your educational experience at Georgia Tech help you achieve your goal?

I definitely think undergrad research made a difference. With RECONSO, I got to develop skills you don’t get in regular AE classes – in computer science and in ECE. In both cases, I had to teach myself new skills and work at the same time – like an actual mission. I also had the experience of running the AeroHack, a hack-a-thon that drew in industry sponsors and students. It was a great experience.

What advice would you give a student who was thinking about following your steps at Georgia Tech's aerospace engineering school?

Actually, my most important advice would be: get a good study group, because you cannot do this all by yourself. You need friends who’ll sit down and help you work through problems you get in classes. You can’t just sit yourself in your dorm room and do it yourself. I’d also say take advantage of the opportunity to travel. I did a semester in Australia and New Zealand.