Sasha at JPL.

From international acrobat to CU Boulder aerospace engineer

Aug. 1, 2023

Sasha Gladkova has always loved science and space, but she never imagined work in those fields could become her career. She had done well in high school math, completing multiple levels of calculus, but was dedicated to another future: gymnastics and acrobatics. It was an area where she had excelled to the highest levels, competing internationally for...

Liza Graybill

A winding road to aerospace excellence

June 27, 2022

I grew up in Lititz, Pennsylvania, and I fell in love with aerospace when I visited Kennedy Space Center after I graduated from high school. Seeing Space Shuttle Atlantis in person was the first time I can definitively say I became interested in aerospace. I loved space growing up and spent many nights stargazing, but I had never...

Jade on the soccer field.

Division 1 student athlete and CU Boulder aerospace engineer

June 15, 2022

I grew up in Del Mar, California, which is a city in north San Diego. From a young age I have always been very interested in science and math, and always looked forward to those classes the most. Math came the easiest, and from 5th grade on I was always...

Teagan Browne

Sophomore lands full-ride SMART Scholarship and post-graduation job

Oct. 26, 2020

It was mid-March and stress was high at the University of Colorado Boulder. Due to the COVID pandemic, courses had transitioned online and students were moving out of the campus dorms. As one of her newly Zoom-based classes let out, Teagan Browne’s phone rang...

Demetrius Ross

“The sky isn’t the limit” - NASA intern Demetrius M. Ross

May 21, 2020

CU Boulder Aerospace junior Demetrius M. Ross is preparing for an internship with NASA. Due to COVID-19, he will no longer be traveling to the Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), but he’ll still be keeping busy.Working remotely between teams of professional engineers and his mentor, NASA project systems engineer Timothy...

Addison Woodard

Houston, we have an intern

April 21, 2020

Aerospace junior and Colorado native Addison Woodard is Johnson Space Center-bound. The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences undergraduate has been selected as one of just 25 students nationwide for a 2020 NASA Pathways internship at JSC in Houston, Texas. “This is a program I've...

Kristyn Sample

From there to here: a nontraditional path to an aerospace career

Jan. 8, 2019

Kristyn Sample struggled to find her place after high school. The Columbia, Missouri native was getting by working waitressing jobs around Kansas City, but knew she wanted more. Now 27, Sample has graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder as an aerospace engineer, is newly married, has left a legacy...

Amber Bishop in a hanger.

Senior flying toward an aerospace future

Dec. 21, 2017

Amber Bishop may still be an undergraduate, but she is already working on building up the next generation of aerospace engineers. The CU Boulder aerospace senior is...

Christine Reilly

AES junior lands fellowship at Virgin Galactic

March 8, 2017

Some high school students seem to have their entire lives already mapped out. Christine Reilly was not one of them -- picking a college major was not easy. Now, as a CU Boulder Smead Aerospace junior and Norlin Scholar, she cannot imagine herself anywhere else. In many ways, engineering was...

Matthew Hurst

Astronaut Scholarship Winner Has Out-Of-This-World Goals

Nov. 8, 2016

Matt Hurst dreams of becoming an astronaut. It’s a desire shared by many around the world, but for Hurst, these are not merely idle thoughts of someone staring at the night sky. As an aerospace student, Hurst is on a path he hopes will take him into space, but if...