• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2024

• Georgetown University, B.S. Science, Technology, and International Affairs, ‘24

• Host Institution: Aerospace Industries Association's Space Systems Team

• Mentor: Paula Trimble

• Brookie Mentor: Vanessa Van Decker

Sophia is a senior at Georgetown University majoring in Science, Technology, and International Affairs and minoring in Korean. Since arriving at Georgetown, she’s been passionate about maintaining and preserving the 180-year-old Heyden Observatory on campus. Her initial interest in the military and security coincided with her learning about the Observatory’s local history, leading her to pursue a career in space security. She views space as a puzzle: an emerging regulatory regime for new frameworks to be created.

Sophia is originally from Brentwood, TN, and now resides in Irvine, CA; her family hails from Taiwan and Singapore. As a Taiwanese-American, she feels strongly about Indo-Pacific issues and enjoys playing mahjong with her family. These interests naturally led her into the world of professional military wargaming, as the President of the GU Wargaming Society. Here, she gained confidence in herself as the only young woman in the room, and she works to bring other students and women of color into the industry. In her SEDS-GU chapter, she also created a mentorship program to introduce young students and women to the aerospace industry.

Last summer, she served as a wargaming intern at the National Defense University’s Center for Applied Strategic Learning, with the aid of the Alexis and Lawrence Pelosi Endowed Internship Fund; the Fund provides a $3,000 stipend to 5 Georgetown students pursuing unpaid internships in public service. At NDU, she worked on a variety of Indo-Pacific and space wargames, assisting with NDU curriculum for interagency and international officials.

In Spring 2024, Sophia is interning at the American Foreign Policy Council’s Space Policy Initiative as a space wargaming intern, to look at Great Power Competition and warfighting in space.

In her spare time, she enjoys playing wargames, cooking traditional Taiwanese and Singaporean foods, learning about religious anthropology, and advocating for the historic Heyden Observatory.

Sophia is honored to be a part of the Brooke Owens Class of 2024 with the Aerospace Industries Association as she looks to gain practical experience in space policy.