The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship Announces Class of 2024 Fellows

The twenty nine students selected comprise the fourth class of Patti Grace Smith Fellows, helping promote a more equitable aerospace industry

Huntsville, Al. – February 1, 2024 – The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship is pleased to announce the selection of 29 students to participate in our award-winning program that connects the United States’ leading aerospace companies with talented Black students. 

The Class of 2024 Fellows hail from 17 colleges and universities spread across 13 states and Puerto Rico. Each Fellow has earned a challenging summer aerospace internship, as well as 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 to enter the aerospace industry. Candidates are vetted through a multi-round selection process and paired with companies ranging from launch providers to spacecraft makers and aircraft builders.  

“We couldn’t be more excited to inaugurate this next class of bright, motivated, future leaders of aerospace” said Tiffany Russell Lockett, a Co-Founder of the Fellowship. “Selected students showed strong drive across multiple disciplines, academic rigor and a commitment to bettering their communities.” 

Established in 2020, the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship endeavors to help resolve the under-representation of Black and African-American employees in the U.S. aerospace workforce – a longstanding byproduct of Jim Crow. 

The program, which is based closely on the award-winning Brooke Owens Fellowship, was founded by four individuals: Col. B. Alvin Drew, Jr., (USAF, Ret.), a two-time Space Shuttle astronaut; aerospace professional and Brooke Owens Fellowship alumna Khristian Jones; aerospace engineer Tiffany Russell Lockett; and aerospace executive Will Pomerantz. Over the past 12 months, the team added to its leadership Caleb Henry, the director of research at Quilty Space, and Juanitta "AJ" Bekoe, Syracuse University undergraduate student and 2022 Patti Grace Smith Fellowship Alum.

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 commercial space renaissance. In 2021, Smith was selected posthumously as the recipient of the prestigious General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award, one of the highest honors available to aerospace professionals.

The 2024 Patti Grace Smith Fellows are:

• Abeni Belay, a third-year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. Belay will intern at Sierra Space. 

• Adam Ben Youssef, a third-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Youssef will intern at Blue Origin.  

• Anthony "Steven" Johnson, a second-year student studying Mechanical Engineering at University of Maryland, College Park. Johnson will intern at Muon Space. 

• Bailey Norwood, a second-year student studying Computer Science at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Norwood will intern at Astrolab. 

• Benjamin Carter, a third-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Carter will intern at Northrop Grumman. 

• Brianna "Bri" Olalekan, a fourth-year student studying Physics, with a minor in Chemistry at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Olalekan will intern at Barrios. 

• Chanel Davis, a second-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Davis will intern at BryceTech. 

• Channelle Taylor, a third-year student studying Aerospace engineering major with a minor in Earth and Atmospheric Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. Taylor will intern at Aurelia Institute. 

• Chase Marangu, a second-year student studying Computer Science at Vassar College. Marangu will intern at Relativity Space. 

• Daniel Mehreteab, a second-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Mehreteab will intern at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

• Deshawn Johnson, a fourth-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Johnson will intern at Aerospace Corporation. 

• Henock Tilahun, a first-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Stanford University. Tilahun will intern at SpaceX. 

• Ian Santiago, a second-year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Santiago will intern at ispace technologies U.S., Inc.

• Ihsaan El-Amin, a third-year student studying Aerospace Engineering and Applied Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. El-Amin will intern at Lockheed Martin. 

• Iyana McGirt, a third-year student studying Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University. McGirt will intern at Loft Orbital. 

• Jayden Warren, a third-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Tech. Warren will intern at Astroscale, U.S.

• Jesika Geliga-Torres, a fourth-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Geliga-Torres will intern at Lockheed Martin. 

• Jordan Scurry, a third-year student studying Mechanical Engineering at Kennesaw State University. Scurry will intern at Hermeus. 

• Kendal Harris, a fourth-year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Harris will intern at Joby. 

• Kendall Olszowka, a second-year student studying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, with a minor in French Language and Culture at Princeton University. Olszowka will intern at Hawkeye 360. 

• Marie Taylor, a second-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Taylor will intern at SpaceX.

• Nahum Yehdego, a third-year student studying Computer Science and Economics at Brown University. Yehdego will intern at Lynk. 

• Nichole Fajardo, a second-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Fajardo will intern at Redwire.

• Ninoshka Torres-Meléndez, a third-year student studying Theoretical Physics at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. Torres-Melendez will intern at Astroscale, U.S..

• Osbourne Lawrence, a third-year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Lawrence will intern at United Launch Alliance.

• Papa Quainoo, a fourth-year student studying Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Quainoo will intern at Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, Inc.

• Sarah Marmolejos, a fourth-year student studying Computer Engineering at Wake Forest University. Marmolejos will intern at Draper Laboratory. 

• Spencer Roberts, a third-year student studying Mechanical Engineering at Santa Clara University. Roberts will intern at ABL. 

• Temidayo Akinbi, a fourth-year student studying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. Akinbi will intern at Vast Space. 

In addition to the 29 Fellows that we are adding to our community, we are happy to welcome Aurelia Institute, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Loft Orbital, Muon Space, and Vast Space as new host companies.

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