Jessica Jones, Student Ambassador

Year: Sophomore
Major: Aerospace Engineering
High School: From the Heart Christian School (Temple Mills, MD)

Jessica Jones

I wanted to be a pilot until I found out how much it would cost. Six weeks of flight training at my top-choice school would cost (much) more than a year’s tuition at any of my other schools. But what else could I do? I had spent my whole life looking up at those shiny glints in the sky, falling asleep to the rumble of air traffic over my house, waiting for the day when I could sit in the cockpit 30,000 feet up and race the sunset to the horizon. What other career could satisfy the longings of a heart that so desperately wanted to be airborne? The airplanes themselves gave me the answer. Even if I couldn’t fly them, I could design them. As an aerospace engineer, I could create the very vehicles that had captured my fascination; I could craft the tools of my dream career. I would have the opportunity to improve upon existing aircraft designs and make flight a more comfortable, more sustainable, safer way to travel. Furthermore, I wouldn’t have to relinquish my dream of becoming a pilot because the knowledge bases of pilots and aerospace engineers are complementary. Becoming an engineer not only nudged me closer to being a pilot, it has opened up a whole new realm of possible careers, each one more exciting than the last.

I’m a member of two professional organizations: the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the National Society of Black Engineers. AIAA hosts a variety of lectures, symposiums, and conferences to foster the professional development of its members. As a member of NSBE and the Clark School’s Women in Engineering Program, I volunteer in programs that target high school students belonging to groups underrepresented in the STEM fields and encourage them to consider engineering as a career choice. I’m also a HighRiser, a current student that hosts prospective freshman during the Overnight Stay Program to introduce them to life and living at Maryland. I don’t belong to any of the official Maryland sports clubs, but, as a member of Agape Campus Christian Fellowship, I partake of the time-honored traditions of nighttime glow-in-the-dark Ultimate Frisbee and eat-much-bacon Iron Chef.