Space was the farthest thing from Jocelyn Gonzalez’s mind when she enrolled at California State University, Long Beach. A Mexican-American, Gonzalez grew up speaking Spanish and was the first in her family to pursue an engineering degree. Although she’d fallen in love with computer programming, her career options seemed limited to industries she deemed “notorious for poor work-life balances.”
It wasn’t until Aerospace Corp . CEO Steve Isakowitz spoke to engineering students there about the future of space. Aerospace is a nonprofit conducting R&D for the military, NASA, and commercial space industry. Inspired and intrigued, Gonzalez landed an internship there that exposed her to a wide variety of jobs and technologies in the sector, while offering mentorship and diversity support. The company was, in turn, taken by her dedication and talent. After graduating in December, Gonzalez joined its Datacentric Platforms and Architectures division.
“The industry had seemed unattainable before—I had to be an astronaut with three PhDs,” she says. “But the support I received and the exposure to a wide variety of mentors helped make it my reality—and I am now a full-time employee at Aerospace.”
Gonzales’ entrée to space came through Space Workforce 2030 , a two-year-old Aerospace initiative designed to improve representation in the space industry’s technical workforce and meet the needs of its rapid expansion. Diversity of cultures, skills, and genders brings a cross-pollination of ideas that boost innovation, financial returns, and better leadership. It also sends a message that space is for everyone.
“We are a showcase for what humanity is capable of doing in so many positive ways and we’re an expanding industry,” says Isakowitz, who founded the program. “If we’re going to get to that next level, we need to reach out to those who are underrepresented in the workforce—particularly women and people of color. Instead of us competing for the same small pool of talent out there, we need to expand the pool.”
[Photo: Aerospace]
Partnering with Space Foundation
Since its April 2022 launch, SWF2030 has enlisted 29 space firms and reached out to more than five million students via individual STEM programs, a Girl Scouts partnership, and a National Space Day YouTube broadcast on May 3. It also created a National Space Intern Program for university students that drew 332 participants from 1569 applications in its first year. “The intent is the interns at all of our companies get to know each other, go back to their campuses wearing their NSI Space Workforce swag, and create a buzz about this industry,” says Isakowitz.” This year, more than 4,200 students applied for an as-yet undetermined number of slots.
With interest ramping up so quickly, SWF2030 this year partnered with the Space Foundation , a space education nonprofit helmed by Heather Pringle, a retired Air Force Research Laboratory commander. It also hired an executive director, Melanie Stricklan, to ramp up its outreach, promote inclusive hiring, and increase programs to inspire and shepherd aspiring STEM students from kindergarten through graduate school.
“I loved space as a kid. I was eight years old looking up at the night sky in the middle of nowhere, West Texas, where there were not a whole lot of opportunities,” says Stricklan, the co-founder and former CEO of Slingshot Aerospace. “So how can we reach more kids like that? How can we reach those who haven’t understood their place in space and the many opportunities for them?”
