• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2021

• Princeton University, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, ‘22

• Host Institution: Maxar

• Mentor: Ellen Stofan

• Brookie Mentor: Shannen Prindle

An-Ya Olson is a senior at Princeton University majoring in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Originally from Arlington, VA, An-Ya has always had a passion for creating and has fond childhood memories of dreaming up her own wacky inventions from random household items.

An-Ya has also always had a passion for the performing arts. Throughout middle school and high school, she juggled a triple life as a full-time student, pre-professional harpist, and pre-professional ballet dancer. She worked tirelessly towards her goal of becoming a professional harpist, and by age 14, she was ranked the top harpist of her age group in the USA at an international harp competition. Later in high school, inspired by exploring the intersection between science and the arts in various school projects, she became increasingly drawn towards her math and science classes. Learning about astrophysics in her senior year of high school sealed the deal and inspired her to pursue a career in aerospace.

An-Ya is passionate about using her engineering skillset to improve the lives of others, now and in the future. In the summer of 2020, she was awarded a competitive grant through the Princeton Project X Summer Research Fund to conduct an 8-week independent research project, where she designed and built a self-sustaining aeroponic farm from scratch. As a Brooke Owens Fellow, An-Ya interned at Maxar Technologies where she worked with the systems engineering team for WorldView Legion to create analysis tools for the next generation of earth-imaging satellites.

On campus, she is still an active member of the preforming arts community as a harpist in the Princeton University Orchestra and dancer in Princeton University Ballet and Expressions Dance Company. An-Ya has also taken on leadership roles as former Publicity Chair for Princeton University Ballet and President of Expressions Dance Company.