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Allysa Kazhe

  • Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2020

  • University of California at Santa Cruz, Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics, ‘22

  • Host Institution: Maxar Technologies

  • Mentor: Anita Sengupta

Allysa Kazhe is currently a second-year undergraduate student studying Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Born and raised in California, she was brought up with her Mescalero Apache heritage and traditions while remaining active in the Native American community. Since her youth, her fascination to create, pure wonder for how things work, and passion for exploring the natural world led her to engineering.

In high school, Allysa began her path through the Innovative Design and Engineering Academy offering her the first glimpse into the engineering field. Through an internship with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, she analyzed the readiness of Sacramento's infrastructure for the impact of the rise in Electric Vehicles. Graduating from her high school's STEM program among the IDEA Leadership Team and participating in FIRST Robotics, she is continuously committed to inspiring other Native students to pursue further education in STEM.

At UCSC, Allysa applied her Fresh Tracks Program leadership training and grant from the Aspen Institute along with the Educational Opportunity Program to develop a multicultural program for minoritized students. She is involved with researching the improvement to the theory of frequency modulating signals through developing a patented device called Fast Frequency Estimator. Always seeking new experiences, Allysa studied Blue Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany, looking at the outlook and impact of sustainability and responsibility in the interdependent context of the individual, society, nature, technology, and democracy.

Outside of her academic pursuits, Allysa enjoys acrylic painting and practicing foreign languages or learning a new one for future travels abroad. She is also an active member of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Society of Women in Engineering, and the MESA Multicultural Engineering Program.

As a Brooke Owens fellow in the Class of 2020, Allysa will join Maxar Technologies as a Space Systems Core intern.