Catherine Fang and Andra Oltean will receive a paid summer internship, executive mentorship, and industry connections to leading aerospace organizations.
Two Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE) students have been named to the 2025 class of Brooke Owens Fellows, a nationally competitive program that supports exceptional undergraduate women and gender minorities in aerospace with paid internships and executive mentors.
Catherine Fang and Andra Oltean join 44 other undergraduates from around the country, including fellow Yellow Jacket Sara Kapasi (biomedical engineering), in the ninth cohort of “Brookies”.
Founded in 2017, the fellowship honors the legacy of space policy expert and pilot Brooke Owens by empowering the next generation of aerospace industry leaders. Fellows gain hands-on experience through internships at leading aerospace organizations and receive guidance from mentors who are top executives, astronauts, and innovators in the field.
Catherine Fang: Propelling Innovation in Aerospace
Fang decided to apply for the Brooke Owens Fellowship after reading a motivating quote on the fellowship’s website: “We can’t tell you how many of our incredible alumni came thhiiissss close to not applying. Don’t let Impostor Syndrome hold you back!”
Fang is a mentor at the Aero Maker Space, where they have helped students tackle challenging problems while fostering a supportive community.
“It has been very rewarding to watch the space grow and develop over the course of the time that I’ve been here,” Fang said.
Fang also has been an active member of the Ramblin’ Rocket Club, where they worked on the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) project. This initiative focuses on developing systems that ensure rockets follow precise flight paths, maintain stability, and reach their intended destinations by integrating trajectory planning, sensor technology, and autonomous flight corrections.
Joining the GNC project as a freshman was Fang’s first opportunity to apply engineering concepts in a hands-on environment.
“Working with the club gave me hands-on experience that I didn’t get in my freshman-year classes,” they said. “I thought it was so cool to be working on and launching rockets, and being surrounded by such a passionate community motivated me to further explore aerospace engineering.”
Fang also works as an undergraduate researcher in Christopher Carr’s Planetary eXploration Lab, focusing on astrobiology systems.
This summer, Fang will intern at Millennium Space Systems in El Segundo, California, as part of the Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations team. They're excited to work on small satellite systems, gain hands-on experience with vehicle integration and testing, and explore the West Coast for the first time.
Andra Oltean: Exploring New Frontiers in Aerospace
Oltean has been actively involved in research at the Ben T. Zinn Combustion Laboratory, where she works on burner operation, combustion laser diagnostics, and post-data image processing.
She credited these experiences, along with hands-on aerospace projects, for preparing her for opportunities in rocketry.
“My time at Georgia Tech has given me the chance to design and build real propulsion systems, which ultimately helped me land an internship at Stoke Space last fall,” Oltean said. “There, I worked on their second-stage thrusters, which was an incredibly rewarding experience.”
Oltean is a member of the Yellow Jacket Space Program (YJSP), which has provided her with more hands-on experience in propulsion systems as well as project leadership.
She says YJSP has played a huge role in shaping her interest in aerospace by giving her real project ownership and the chance to work on interdisciplinary engineering challenges.
This summer, Oltean will intern at Rocket Lab in Long Beach, California, where she will work on the Neutron Stage Fluids Team. She’s excited to contribute to the development of reusable rocketry, a rapidly evolving area of the aerospace industry.
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