Aisha Bowe: Aerospace Engineer, STEMBoard and Lingo Founder, and Future Astronaut

Aisha Bowe is an aerospace engineer and the founder of the engineering consultancy firm STEMBoard. Bowe wasn’t always an engineering wizard. In high school, she struggled to connect academically and enrolled in community college with little hope that any field could interest her. But a teacher identified her strengths and suggested she try out engineering. She thrived in her engineering courses, and her confidence and sense of possibility for her career began to grow. She followed this passion to the University of Michigan, where she gained two degrees in aerospace engineering. Bowe interned at NASA in college and then was hired full-time. She ultimately spent seven years there, working on small spacecraft and flight trajectory dynamics. In 2013, she founded STEMBoard, a startup that provides engineering services and solutions—a feat she accomplished without any outside funding—and eventually left her job at NASA to pursue her startup full-time. In 2020, she founded Lingo, a company that creates self-paced, at-home STEM education kits for kids. Earlier this year, it was announced that she would be the first Black woman to travel to space with Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos.