The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship offers paid internships to Black aerospace engineering students. It was modeled after the Brooke Owens Fellowship for women aerospace engineering students, which was recently awarded to Honors Program student Nina Otebele. Only 29 students were selected for the 2024 Patti Grace Fellowship—four of them are Georgia Tech students, and two of those are Honors Program students Ihsaan El-Amin and Papa Quainoo.
Ihsaan hails from right here in Atlanta, while Papa is from Winneba, a coastal town in Ghana's central region, and both joined the Honors Program as transfer students. Ihsaan will pursue an internship at Lockheed Space as a system engineering intern, possibly working to help develop a human lunar landing system to support the efforts of Blue Origin, while Papa will be working at Airbus as an assembly, test, and launch operations intern assisting in the integration of spacecraft hardware and systems.
In their applications for the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, both El-Amin and Quainoo highlighted what makes them special and particularly well-suited for the rigorous internship. El-Amin focused on his creativity outside of the world of aerospace engineering, particularly in music and photography, while Quainoo emphasized his personal growth in being able to embrace disappointment and use it as a catalyst for improvement. Quainoo stated that he hoped to inspire “the next generation of minority aerospace engineers to see that there are people who look like them who have come this far in the industry, which, coincidentally, is what Patti Grace Smith did for me.” Both El-Amin and Quainoo see the fellowship as a stepping stone to the next level in their aerospace engineering training. El-Amin hope to complete the BS/MS program here at Georgia Tech and go right into the aerospace industry, possibly with a little bit of travel in between. Quainoo would like to explore the different facets of the aerospace industry to find just the right fit and then head back to graduate school for additional training in that area. The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship is one way to get connections with people working across the broad industry.
Outside of their stellar academic achievements and passion for aerospace engineering, El-Amin and Quainoo are active on campus. El-Amin participates in the GT Musicians Network, GT Creatives, and AeroAfroAstro, while Quainoo is a soccer fan and intramural player who has been involved in leadership coaching, peer mentoring, and study abroad where he conducted research to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Both have been active in the Honors Program, taking advantage of the relationships they developed at the incoming student retreat and in Honors Program classes. Reflecting on his Honors Program experience, Quainoo said:
The Honors Program has also been a much-needed helping hand to me in my journey here at Tech. As a transfer student in the chaotic, fast-paced environment of Georgia Tech, it is very hard to get someone to explain the different opportunities Tech has to offer, and before you realize it, some of the opportunities may have slipped away. But that HP orientation program helped me to get settled and understand the different paths I could take and how to maximize my relatively short time here at Tech. And, considering where I am today, I would say it has been a success!
Congratulations to Ihsaan El-Amin and Papa Quainoo on being named 2024 Patti Grace Smith Fellows. You can read more about all the 2024 Georgia Tech Patti Grace Smith Fellows on the School of Aerospace Engineering website.