Introducing the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship
A NEW PROGRAM EMPOWERING BLACK EXCELLENCE IN AEROSPACE
OCTOBER 07, 2020 – Black students interested in aviation and space exploration now have a new pathway to a successful aerospace career in the form of a new program called the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship. Announced for the first time today, the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship will provide extraordinary Black undergraduates with paid summer internships at many of the nation’s leading aerospace companies and non-profits, along with both executive-level and near-peer mentorship, a vibrant community of like-minded Black students and professionals, and cash grants of approximately $1,000 to go towards work or school or expenses. The program is an official spin-off of the award-winning Brooke Owens Fellowship, which has made great strides in improving gender equality in the aerospace industry, and follows the same basic structure proven out by that program and its earlier spin-off, the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship.
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 13.4% of the US population and 15.3% of American undergraduate and graduate students, a recent study conducted by Aviation Week Network found that only 6% of US Aerospace and Defense workers are Black. The disparity is even greater in leadership positions: the same study found that only 3% of aerospace executives are Black. Although Black employees are slightly less under-represented in recent new hires into the industry, the industry is also failing to retain African-Americans at the same rate as their peers in other demographics, leading to overall numbers that are virtually unchanged over the past decade.
The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship seeks to make an impact both on the individual Fellows and on the industry as a whole by counter-attacking each of the leading factors contributing to systemic underrepresentation: too few job offers, too low wages, too few industry peers, and too little executive representation. Through a fair and competitive application and matching process, Patti Grace Smith Fellows will earn a challenging job and a living wage at a list of employers that includes: Axiom Space; Ball Aerospace; Blue Origin; The Boeing Company, Defense, Space, & Security; Bryce Space and Technology; Joby Aviation; Lockheed Martin; Masten Space Systems; Maxar Technologies; MIT’s Space Exploration Initiative; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Northrop Grumman; Sierra Nevada Corporation; Stratolaunch; SpaceX; The Aerospace Corporation; The Spaceship Company; United Launch Alliance; Virgin Galactic; and Virgin Orbit. Additional employers will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship was founded by two-time astronaut B. Alvin Drew, Jr. (Col., USAF, Ret.), undergraduate student and Brooke Owens Fellowship alumna Khristian Jones, aerospace engineer Tiffany R. Lockett, and aerospace executive Will Pomerantz. The program’s name honors 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 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 – to lead a remarkable aerospace career highlighted by running the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
“The statistics show clearly that Black people can be extremely successful in aerospace – but also that the industry needs to do a much better job of attracting, training, promoting, and retaining African-Americans,” said Alvin Drew, a co-founder of the program and one of only five African-Americans ever to conduct a spacewalk. “There are too many Black students who are ready, capable, and willing to do the work but who still are not receiving the same opportunities and the same guidance as their peers of other races. Through the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, we are excited to give those students a real chance, and a real community. With the unbeatable caliber of the employers we have signed up, the incredible mentors in our community, and the inspiring example of people like Patti, we can begin to make a real difference in these lives and in this industry.”
Students can apply for the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship beginning today and running through November 15th. The program is open to all students who identify as Black, who are seeking their first job in aerospace, and who are in the first two years of any Bachelor’s Degree or any year of an Associate’s Degree program – regardless of gender, age, major, university, or nationality. The program offers positions in engineering, science, public relations, policy and more.
To learn more about the program, to read about Patti Grace Smith’s inspiring legacy, or to apply for the program, please visit pgsfellowship.org.