Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed a joyful and healthy start to 2023. The New Year welcomes new experiences, new opportunities and new adventures, and what better way to kick off 2023 than by celebrating six FAITH Scholars who are exploring new frontiers…
From interning at NASA to designing and leading rocket launches, the young people below are working to advance the field of aviation and space industries through learning complex engineering systems, developing new technology and above all, remaining committed to the curiosity that ensures many new discoveries and possibilities within our world and beyond.
We see the future in our gifted students and it looks bright!
Vasiliki Frantzis, 2018 FAITH Scholar
Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
For her second consecutive summer, Vasiliki interned at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center designing and studying spacecraft for future missions. As Hellenic Society secretary, she invited Greek aerospace engineers to share their research and industry accomplishments at a series of virtual panels. After graduating, she will pursue her master’s degree and aspires to work for NASA full time.
George Koutras, 2021 FAITH Scholar
Physics, University of Richmond
This summer, George studied abroad in Prague and the summer prior, he interned with NASA in the quality assurance processes and
metrics department at the Goddard Space Flight Center. He was selected to attend Rice University’s Aerospace & Aviation Academy and Alfred University’s astronomy intensive. He plans to pursue graduate studies in astronomy.
Kyra Parras, 2019 FAITH Scholar
Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan
After completing an engineering internship at the NASA Glenn Research Center and ZIN Technologies, an aerospace design and manufacturing center, Kyra reached out to an aerospace engineer at the Wright Paterson Air Force Base to mentor her three-year capstone project. Afterwards she was then hired as a System Integration and Test Engineer Intern at Lockheed Martin. Kyra is currently a test engineer for the Michigan Mars Rover student project team.
Matthew Sietsema, 2017 FAITH Scholar
Electrical & Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University
While working with Michigan Tech Enterprise, Matthew was Chief Engineer of two spacecraft programs, Auris and Stratus, and oversaw small satellite design and development. He researched in the Planetary Surface Technology Development Lab and worked with the “NASA Watts on the Moon” challenge. Following his internship in the Strategic & Military Space Division at the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Utah, Matthew joined the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico as a SMART Scholar.
Constantinos Skevofilax, 2020 FAITH Scholar
Computational Engineering, University of Texas
Constantinos competed in the NASA LEAPFROG Lander competition where he programmed a rover on terrain set by NASA. As a software lead for the Texas Spacecraft Laboratory, he developed CubeSat technology for missions sponsored by NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Constantinos is currently an undergraduate research assistant at the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
Matthew Skogen, 2015 FAITH Scholar
Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
While in the University of Colorado’s aerospace engineering program, Matthew was a teaching assistant for a statics, structures, and materials science class and led a team students in developing a Vector Robot. After graduation, he was hired as a software engineering intern. In 2019 he started at Ball Aerospace & Technologies as a grounds system engineer and is currently an embedded software engineer