• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2022

• University of Chicago, Astrophysics and Anthropology, ‘24

• Host Institution: Ball Aerospace

• Executive Mentor: Chris Lewicki

• Brookie Mentor: Harriet Hunt

Audrey Scott is second year at the University of Chicago studying astrophysics and anthropology. Growing up in Houston shaped her enduring fascination with not only the aerospace industry, but the universe as a whole. Being additionally exposed to a variety of other fields, arts, and travel, Audrey realized her desire to become a polymath and apply interdisciplinary solutioning to the challenges facing humanity in their journey to the stars. As a Brooke Owens fellow, Audrey is thrilled to be joining the Ball Aerospace Systems Innovation and Advancement team in Colorado.

Technically studying for her “second career” in aerospace, Audrey began working at the age of 7 when she was cast in a Space Center Houston commercial (a serendipitous event which would come full circle when she was named a part of the 20th class of NASA’s High School Aerospace Scholars in 2018). Though most may only have seen her as Young Leslie Knope in NBC’s Parks and Recreation, her leading roles in films were met with critical acclaim in publications including Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post. As 10+ year member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), she’s used her professional experience to help shape other young actors’ working conditions and protections as a member of the National Young Performer’s Committee since 2017.

Now, fully entrenched in preparing for her second career, Audrey is using her skills honed through the arts – communication, storytelling, collaboration, and accepting rejection with grace and a plan to overcome – to meet organization goals and leave a lasting impact on the space industry. Audrey believes that aerospace isn’t just about space – it’s also about people. Her dual path of study allows her to examine both the scientific rigor of the cosmos as well as the inner workings of human nature, and to be able to synthesize various disciplines into workable futures for the industry. The questions anthropologists ask now about how humanity interacts and perceives itself in relation to the world around them are soon to be scaled up to a multiplanetary perspective – and Audrey wants to be at the forefront of the knowledge to spawn from this new recentering.

When she’s not holed up studying, Audrey works as a research assistant in UChicago’s Astrophysics department, scans document requests a Library Assistant, serves as Vice Chair of SEDS-USA and as the Vice President of SEDS-UChicago, is a board member of her Society of Physics Students chapter, and is Treasurer of her school’s Alpha Phi Omega. Outside of university studies, Audrey engages in scientific outreach through volunteering at public events and through mentoring young girls. Knowing the impact of people in her life feeding the fire within her for greater understanding, she aims to do the same for others – one spark at a time.