What is your next adventure?

I’ll be starting full-time at Boom Supersonic in Denver at the end of June. I will be a Commercial Analyst. It’s not a typical engineering role, but it really brings together everything I’ve done over the past few summers into one job. 
I actually met with Boom recruiters at the AE Career Fair. At the time, I was weighing a few offers and assumed I’d go into something more traditional like consulting or a typical aerospace job on my horizon. I told them I have a pretty atypical aerospace engineering background. I’ve done one summer in traditional engineering, then worked at a startup, and even spent time in investment banking, which is kind of wild. I’ve always been interested in both business and engineering, and they were like, “Hey, we can actually build a role around that.” That was really cool—they basically took what felt like my dream job description and shaped a position on their commercial team around it.

What about your next adventure are you most looking forward to?

The biggest thing for me is that I really feel like I’ve lived my college experience. I worked in Nashville one summer and in D.C. another, so I’ve gotten to experience different cities and industries, but I haven’t spent time out West yet, and I’m really excited about that. I’m also excited to join a company that’s doing something truly new. Boom isn’t just building supersonic commercial aircraft—they’re also designing engines and turbines for data centers. It’s two very different things, but the idea is so bold that it requires creative funding and problem-solving, and none of the major aerospace players are doing anything like it.

At this stage of my career, I’m excited to experience the ups and downs and just learn as much as I can. I see this role as a stepping stone, maybe for a few years, maybe longer if I love it—but very much a transitional period. It’s about working post-grad, understanding how the corporate and startup worlds operate, and learning how businesses are run.

Did you have any previous co-op, internship, or research experience in this area?

My first summer, between freshman and sophomore year, I went back to the same place I interned in high school. It’s an aerospace manufacturer called Essex Industries based in St. Louis, Missouri, which is where I’m from. They make things like check valves, liquid oxygen equipment, and platform controls for aircraft including the F-35. I worked at one of their facilities doing sustaining engineering, which is kind of an extension of manufacturing engineering. 

Sophomore year, I reached out to Cedric Justin, a research engineer in Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory ( ASDL), who was working on hybrid electric aircraft cost modeling. I ended up spending my entire second year on that research. I was part of a NASA-sponsored project and was involved things with like comparing nonstop versus connecting itineraries and doing cost modeling for regional aircraft, such as the ATR 72. My role was mostly validating the models, making sure the operating costs actually made sense. I worked closely with a graduate student, and that experience made me really comfortable with Excel and Python. That year taught me a lot of technical and analytical skills.

That research directly led to my next internship. I ended up interning at Whisper Aero the summer between sophomore and junior year in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a small startup, around 50 people, and I did a little bit of everything. I worked on research like what I had done before, but I also edited videos, helped plan events, and even did acoustics research on how propulsors affect animals like birds and military K-9. It was a really interesting summer, and I loved it. I’m still close with the team and even taking senior design now with people I interned with there. That’s also where I first got exposed to patent law. On my first day, I noticed a group of people in a conference room and found out they were all patent attorneys helping engineers file patents. They were all Georgia Tech alumni with engineering backgrounds, including aerospace, mechanical, and computer science, and one of them went on to law school at Yale. Talking with her really opened my eyes to paths beyond traditional engineering.

Going into my last summer, I wanted to try something totally different. A lot of my friends were preparing for consulting and finance recruiting, and I thought internships should be about exploring. I decided to try consulting and focused on firms that specialize in aerospace. That led me to Renaissance Strategic Advisors, which I found through the Georgia Tech career fair. I interned with them last summer and really enjoyed the experience. The firm is made up of a mix of engineers, people with policy or legal backgrounds, and people from finance. The work involved advising aerospace companies on acquisitions, strategy, and investments, so it was very different from anything I had done before. 

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

Throughout my time at Georgia Tech, mentorship and campus resources played a huge role in shaping my path. As someone interested in an atypical mix of engineering, business, and policy, the Mentors in Residence program was especially impactful. Talking with alumni who started in aerospace and later went on to law school or business school helped me realize that the path I was exploring wasn’t as unusual as I thought. Those conversations gave me honest advice, perspective, and reassurance from people who had already navigated similar crossroads.

AE Career Fair was another major factor in where I am now. Two of my internships and my full-time role at Boom Supersonic directly came from career fair connections. Being able to meet recruiters in person, explain my background, and follow up quickly made a huge difference. Looking back, the career fair opened doors I might not have found otherwise and showed me the value of putting myself out there, being proactive, and taking advantage of the resources available at Tech.

What advice would you give to an underclassman who would like to follow the same path?

When you’re doing something a little atypical, finding people who’ve done similar things is huge. Especially the Mentors-in-Residence program. Having people who are a few steps ahead of you, who’ve already gone through the pitfalls and can tell you, “Don’t do this, do this instead,” is incredibly valuable. I used to assume no one had taken a path like mine, but there are people who have. You just have to go find them.

That means reaching out. Send cold emails. Message people on LinkedIn. Be okay with not getting a response. The worst thing that can happen is someone says no, or you don’t hear back at all. And that’s really not that bad when you think about it.

I also think aerospace is a really interesting field because it teaches you so many different skills. At some point, whether it’s early in your time at Tech or early in your career, you kind of have to decide if you want to go very deep technically in one area through research and higher studies, or if you want to explore more adjacent paths, or even try to do a mix of both. I think being intentional about that decision early on really helps.

Another big piece of advice is to get to know people in your classes and put yourself out there. Apply to things even if you don’t think you’ll get them. Honestly, why not? Most of the time it won’t work out, and that’s fine. But when it does, those opportunities can completely reshape your time here. I’ve had a few moments like that where saying yes changed everything for me.

So, my biggest advice is to just shoot your shot. Say yes when opportunities come up. Don’t be afraid to forge your own path and do your own thing. That’s what I’ve tried to do, and it’s what I hope to keep doing. And honestly, one of the best ways to avoid competition is to do something uniquely your own.