• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2024

• Harvard University, Mechanical Engineering and Astrophysics, ‘25

• Host Institution: SpaceX

• Mentor: Kate Tice

• Brookie Mentor: Michaela Hemming

Emma Kate Price is a junior at Harvard University studying Mechanical Engineering with a secondary in Astrophysics. She was born in rural Missouri, but she moved through several other states and one other country growing up. Early on, looking up at the constellations became one of Emma Kate’s favorite pastimes. It was comforting to her to think that her loved ones, no matter how far away, could look upon the same vast canvas, and she dreamed of someday reaching those stars.

After returning to rural Missouri for high school, Emma Kate began to realize that her love for space could be integrated with her love for hands-on problem solving through aerospace engineering. She had always loved to approach issues by building solutions with discarded materials. Around the same time she discovered her love for physics, Emma Kate realized that the process of problem solving she enjoyed so much was called engineering, and she set her mind to applying that process to space travel. Though she felt wholly unprepared for a career in STEM, she gained confidence through contributing to a robotic team, conducting independent research projects, and presenting at STEM conferences.

Price chose to attend Harvard to pursue aerospace while continuing to take humanities courses. On Harvard’s engineering campus, she serves as a Peer Concentration Advisor, the Society of Women Engineers Public Relations Officer, and a Harvard Rocket Propulsion Group Propulsion Engineer. Price also works as a Teaching Fellow for a physics class and an electrical engineering class. She tutors throughout the year and was named a Spring 2024 Teach for America Ignite Fellow, allowing her to apply her fervor for teaching to American public schools like hers. Beyond STEM, she is also Director of Kesem Harvard Undergraduate, a camp and year round support system for kids affected by a parent’s cancer, and Editor in Chief of the Ichthus, a journal of philosophical thought and expression.

After her freshman year of college, Price participated in the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of Missouri, working to develop a rapid additive manufacturing method for electrically conductive products in an aerospace lab. The following summer, she entered the industry side of aerospace as a Systems Engineer at Boeing. Emma Kate spent the fall 2023 term at Oxford University, where she studied engineering, lived at Oriel College, and rowed with the Oriel College Boat Club.

Emma Kate spends her free time hiking, kayaking, singing karaoke with her friends, reading fiction, rock climbing, scouring Spotify for new songs, and thrifting. Looking to the future, she intends to pursue a graduate degree in propulsion, work in research and development, earn her pilot’s license, and journey to space someday! She also hopes to make it to all seven continents and write at least one book. Most of all, she strives to uplift other women and help break down barriers to aerospace for the next generation of industry leaders. This summer, Emma Kate is ecstatic to work on Starlink at SpaceX in Seattle, WA!