I spent Summers 2024 & 2025 in Starbase, TX working on the Starship Payload Structures RE (Responsible Engineer) team! During my first internship, I designed and executed a successful payload door seal qualification campaign and supported mission-critical ship production for Flight 7. I even got to own four flight parts! My second internship, I improved the manufacturing process for a 30’ payload door weldment. That same summer, I got to see the historic Flight 10 in person, just about 3 miles away from the launch site. It was a very special day to be on the payload team!

Since September 2023, I have worked as a mechanical engineering research assistant at the 317 Rocket Lab at Dartmouth College under Prof. Kristina Lynch. I completed a remote thesis in this lab while at Amherst during my senior year. The 317 Rocket Lab studies the aurora borealis by sending sounding rockets through the ionosphere. My thesis project consisted of improving the design of our ion probes to make them more easily manufacturable, redesigning subpayloads to optimize their mass distribution and assembly time, and designed electronics packaging for PCBs and RF transmitters. In October 2025, I got the change to visit Wallops Flight Facility to oversee the instrumentation I designed undergo integration! In February 2026, our mission launched successfully!

Photo from https://sites.dartmouth.edu/lynch-rocket-lab/personnel/

My time at Amherst College was very special to me because of the communities I was a part of. Amherst College Club Volleyball (ACVB) was one of my homes. As a team, we took the club from a casual once-a-week scrimmage to a competitive, committed team that worked with Amherst’s varsity athletic trainers and played together 10+ hours a week. This experience reignited my love for weightlifting which I still keep up with postgrad.

If you went to Amherst, you would know how close-knit the physics department has come to be! I was lucky enough to serve as the copresident of Spectra, Amherst’s physics & astronomy club. Even though my career as drifted away from physics research, I still hold this space very near and dear to my heart.

I spent my 3rd and 5th years of undergrad studying mechanical engineering at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College through their 3-2 Dual Degree Program with Amherst College. I spent a lot of my time welding in the MShop!

Outside of engineering, I did research in the physics department, played on the women’s club volleyball team, and was a lead artist and designer for Dartmouth’s Intersectional Feminist magazine: Spare Rib.