U-M Aero Senior wins coveted fellowship

After two remote internships, Aerospace Senior Erin Levesque is excited to get back to an in-person internship this summer. And what a doozy it will be, as one of a select few students awarded the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship.

The Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program connects exceptional current college juniors, seniors, and graduate students with paid summer internships in the exciting field of commercial spaceflight, as well as with notable aerospace leaders for mentorship. The summer culminates in a memorable networking summit.

Working in California for ABL Space Systems, Levesque will gain practical aerospace engineering work experience this summer. The fellowship program is known for helping students obtain the closest experience of what working in aerospace will look like while matching them with an external industry mentor and connecting them with fellowship peers and alumni.

On being awarded the fellowship, Levesque comments, “It’s beyond exciting. I feel honored and appreciative to be awarded this fellowship. I am grateful to Matthew’s family for selecting me to be a part of this opportunity. I’m looking forward to connecting with such a strong group of space professionals and students.”

She’s hoping the summer helps open her eyes to certain career trajectories and subfields of aerospace engineering. She’s also interested in learning as much as she can from her industry mentor and leveraging her guidance going forward.

After Levesque’s summer at ABL, she’ll return to the University of Michigan to begin her Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering. She’s passionate about learning and hopes to use the different skills gained from her internship experience and what she learned as an undergraduate to help her further fine-tune her skills as a graduate student.

As she approaches her summer experience and finishes her last semester, Levesque is thinking about Aero students following in her footsteps. She says, “I encourage you to find your group, join a student team, explore your interests, and get connected with peers, and alumni to enrich your experience. Now is the perfect time for Aerospace with so many new endeavors, disciplines and companies in the field; there’s no way you won’t be doing something exciting.”