It’s been two years since I joined the Brooke Owens Fellowship Executive Team, and I can only begin to describe how full my heart was last week when we all came together at the Annual Summit. I’m thrilled we finally got to see the Brookie Fellows in person that we fell in love with back in January 2022, as well as 2020 and 2021 Brookie Fellows that we met virtually in the past few Summits.
The labor I put into this program while pursuing my PhD full-time is immense, but it’s a labor of pure passion for paying it forward and building up the professional careers and toolkits of hundreds of women and other gender minority undergraduate women as they find their way in the aerospace industry. No one person can change the industry alone; this Fellowship is built upon the work of the Founders, my fellow Exec Team members, the alumni who come with me and after me since I was a Brookie in 2017, and the many Executive Mentors and industry supporters who make it possible.
Given all the work of so many people to make it the success it is now, it’s an honor and a privilege to serve the community in this leadership role to represent our Fellowship. The Fellowship is a success because of the hundreds of hours of work put in as volunteers, and it has already paid off just from meeting everyone last week and seeing the shining path before all of us. There will be more work ahead for the aerospace industry, but the future is getting brighter each year.
A huge thanks to the Exec Teams for both Brooke Owens Fellowship and Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, the Summit Teams for hosting a joint Summit experience, the Grand Challenge Team, the speakers, panelists, and mentors, and to all the BOF alumni officers and alumni who have prepared the Brookies for this week. I hope to keep connecting with more Brookie and Patti friends and may we all support each other through the challenges in our careers.
Back in 2017, I illustrated the logo for the Brooke Owens Fellowship when I was a 2017 Brookie Fellow, drawing out symbols representing the Founder’s vision for the Brookies and memory of Brooke. Even though this logo is what I drew, it’s the Brookies themselves that give the logo its meaning in the aerospace industry!