Kaitlyn Olson
Congratulations to Kaitlyn Olson for earning a 2020 Brooke Owens Fellowship!
The highly competitive program provides paid internships and mentoring to exceptional undergraduate women seeking careers in aviation or space exploration.
Olson is a CU Boulder senior pursuing a double major in aerospace engineering sciences and applied mathematics, as well as a master’s degree in aerospace engineering with an emphasis in bioastronautics.
As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Olson will spend the summer of 2020 working at Northrop Grumman.
Growing up near the coast in Florida allowed Olson to watch the space shuttle fly through the sky during its many launches, launching her aerospace career and encouraging her childhood dream of one day becoming an astronaut.
At CU Boulder, she has been involved in a wide variety of engineering interests; she spent two years on CU’s Design, Build, Fly Team and was chosen to be Project Manager during her junior year, she is on the executive board of Theta Tau, a professional, co-ed, engineering fraternity, and works as a teaching fellow for both aerospace engineering and applied mathematics courses.
Outside of engineering, Olson is a member of Alpha Chi Omega and works passionately with their philanthropic efforts to end domestic violence by volunteering with local organizations and helping to organize awareness campaigns.
Olson is currently working for Dr. Brian Argrow as the Project Manager of the BUBO BUBO aircraft, a UAV intending to aid in the study of turbulence and severe weather.
Previously, she spent time at Sierra Nevada Corporation supporting the Dream Chaser Program.
The fellowship program honors the memory of Brooke Owens, a space industry pioneer and accomplished pilot. Owens’ career took her to NASA, the X-Prize Foundation, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the White House. Her enthusiasm and passion for aerospace led friends and colleagues to create a foundation to inspire and train exceptional undergraduate women with the same zeal for space exploration.