• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2022

• Portland State University, Masters of Science, Electrical Engineering, ‘26

• Portland State University, Portland Community College, Bachelors of Science, Electrical Engineering, ‘24

• Host Institution: Draper Laboratory

• Executive Mentor: Marissa Moehring

• Brookie Mentor: Janay Bombino

Teresa Nguyen was born and raised in Oregon, and is currently living in Portland. They are second generation Vietnamese-American and grew up in diaspora with their mixed immigrant Vietnamese and Sicilian family. They are a post-bacc and will be pursuing Portland State University’s bridge program fast tracking them to a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering. This would get them closer to working on all the space robots, and they are stoked to do a deep dive in Embedded Systems and Digital Signal Processing. They hope to one day become an astronaut and support the Artemis Space Missions.

As an active student leader, they work with their community college as a mentor to MESA peer mentors supporting other students in college algebra. They are a member of We In Space, a women and gender minority chapter of WoAA with Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS) as a STEM Outreach Coordinator. They are a part time TIG welder for PSAS Launch Vehicle 4 (LV4) propellant test tanks, and an in-depth researcher on interdisciplinary aerospace practices within the PSAS ecosystem. This approach allowed Teresa to fully immerse themselves into all things aerospace, and they haven’t looked back since.

They are also pursuing a certificate program in Comics Studies as an alternative medium for science communication, as well as their connection to storytelling within the queer Viet-American diaspora. This lived experience with race and gender prompted them to examine their cultural relationship to food, femme as non-binary, and more recently what it means to be out in STEM.

These dynamics motivate them to be a mentor to other LGBTQ+ STEM students by modeling the possibility of being a non-traditional student pursuing their dreams full steam ahead. They are invested in creating a holistic approach to the academy, prioritizing mental wealth over a production driven work ethic. They love the Oregon coast, ridiculous marathon road trips, playing weird indie Switch games, board games, and cooking.