The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship Welcomes 31 Fellows in Most Competitive Class To Date

WASHINGTON, D.C. – JANUARY 27, 2023 – Thirty-one undergraduate students, hailing from twenty-two colleges and universities across the United States, have been selected as the newest recipients of the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, the award-winning program that connects the nation’s leading aerospace companies with talented Black students. As part of the most competitive application process yet, each member of the program’s Class of 2023 has earned a challenging summer internship in the aerospace field, in addition to receiving a scholarship worth thousands of dollars, a pair of personalized mentors, and more.

To be selected as Patti Grace Smith Fellows, applicants must be Black students currently enrolled in a bachelor’s or associate’s degree program who are seeking their first work experience in the aerospace industry. Over the course of a four-round selection process, each candidate was thoroughly vetted by a group of aerospace industry professionals, rising-star early career employees, and corporate employers. Selected candidates displayed exceptional aptitude for their chosen discipline in addition to scoring high marks for creativity, ingenuity, and a commitment to serving others. The program serves students seeking a variety of career paths within aerospace, including engineering, science, policy, and more.

“We are delighted to continue to find excited, driven, and talented students that want to bring black excellence into Aerospace,” said Tiffany Russell Lockett, a Co-Founder of the Fellowship. “Our goal is always to bring the best students forward for our host companies to consider and this is the most competitive class to date. With the highest number of applicants ever, we are excited to see where this class goes and how we will continue to make an impact in the future.”

The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship has begun to make strides in the program’s quest to combat the longstanding and well-quantified under-representation of Black and African-American employees in the US aerospace workforce. Though the aerospace industry has made important strides since the days when African-Americans were legally barred from studying in many universities and holding many positions in the aerospace workforce, there is still a great deal of progress to be made. While African-Americans make up 14.1% of the US population and roughly 15% of American undergraduate and graduate students, a recent study conducted by AIA and AIAA found that only 10.03% of US Aerospace and Defense workers and only 5.69% of aerospace executives are Black.

The program, which is based closely on the award-winning Brooke Owens Fellowship, was founded by Col. B. Alvin Drew, Jr., (USAF, Ret.), a two-time Space Shuttle astronaut and a co-founder of the Fellowship, undergraduate student and Brooke Owens Fellowship alumna Khristian Jones, aerospace engineer Tiffany Russell Lockett, and aerospace executive Will Pomerantz. The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship added their first full time Operations Director, Ginny Randall, to the team in July 2023.

The program’s name was chosen to honor a beloved aerospace industry leader who overcame a system of legalized racial segregation: as a young girl, Patti Grace Smith (then Patricia Jones) was one of a dozen Black students to integrate Tuskegee High School, and was a plaintiff in a landmark case that integrated the public schools in Alabama, as upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. Her illustrious career was highlighted by her role leading the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation in the early days of the nation’s space renaissance. In 2021, Smith was selected as the recipient of the prestigious General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award, one of the highest honors available to aerospace professionals.

The 2023 Patti Grace Smith Fellows are:

• Amadou Wade, a First Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland. Wade will intern this summer with Zipline.

• Andrew Pierre-Antoine, a First Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Pierre-Antoine will intern this summer with Airbus U.S. Space & Defense.

• Anisa Hill, a Fifth Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at George Mason University. Hill will intern this summer with Relativity Space.

• Ayomikun Gbadamosi, a Fourth Year student studying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. Gbadamosi will intern this summer with ABL Space Systems.

• Christal Biney, a First Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. Biney will intern this summer with BryceTech.

• Denzel Ekes, a Third Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University. Ekes will intern this summer with Hermeus.

• Edward Siaw, a Second Year student studying Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University. Siaw will intern this summer with Northrop Grumman.

• Emily Burrus, a Fourth Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Burrus will intern this summer with Blue Origin.

• Gbemitireoluwa (Tirey) Daramola, a Second Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland. Daramola will intern this summer with Ursa Major.

• George Cicero, a Second Year student studying Electrical Engineering at Boston University. Cicero will intern this summer at ispace-USA.

• Irwin J. Alcantara, a Fourth Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Alcantara will intern this summer with Gravitics.

• Janae Jordan, a First Year  student studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Jordan will intern this summer with BryceTech.

• Jayden Christmas, a First Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Christmas will intern this summer with Redwire Space.

• Jesus “JJ” Wilkins, a Second Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at University of California - Berkeley. Wilkins will intern this summer with Outpost Space.

• Lordina O. Mensah, a First Year student studying Mechanical Engineering and Information Communication Technology at the University of Kentucky. Mensah will intern this summer with Venturi Astrolab.

• Mariyah Ndiaye, a Second Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Ndiaye will intern this summer with Redwire Space.

• Marvellous Achugbu, a Fourth Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland. Achugbu will intern this summer with SpaceX.

• Maya Kinyatta Tyson, a Fifth Year student studying Mathematics and Aerospace Engineering at Spelman College / Georgia Institute of Technology. Tyson will intern this summer with Joby Aviation.

• McKenna McMurray, a First Year student studying Engineering and Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College. McMurray will intern this summer with Lockheed Martin.

• Meredith Clark, a First Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. Clark will intern this summer with Astroscale US.

• Mezie Nwizugbo, a Second Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California. Nwizugbo will intern this summer with SpaceX.

• N’kira Brooks, a Fourth Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at New York University. Brooks will intern this summer with Astroscale US.

• Nathan Evans, a Second Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University. Evans will intern this summer with Ball Aerospace.

• Nicholas Olibrice, a Fourth Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Hampshire. Olibrice will intern this summer with Barrios Technology.

• Paris Garrett, a Fourth Year student studying Computer Science at Texas Southern University. Garrett will intern this summer with Axiom Space.

• Raven Warner, a Fifth Year student studying Computer Science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Warner will intern this summer with United Launch Alliance (ULA).

• Sana’i Parker, a Fourth Year student studying Mechanical Engineering at Drexel University. Parker will intern this summer with SpaceX.

• Stanley Tucker, a Fourth Year student studying Unmanned Aircraft Systems Engineering and Homeland Security and Intelligence at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Tucker will intern this summer with HawkEye 360.

• Taj Lee, a Second Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Lee will intern this summer with Virgin Orbit.

• Xavier Goewey, a First Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Goewey will intern this summer with Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC).

• Zach Conti, a Second Year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Saint Louis University. Conti will intern this summer with Ursa Major. 

For more information about the Fellows, their employers, or the program itself, please visit www.pgsfellowship.org.