AAE junior awarded Amelia Earhart Scholarship
Caroline Kren, a junior in AAE, was one of four Purdue students awarded the Amelia Earhart Scholarship.
The scholarships were presented to juniors and seniors who demonstrate leadership, determination, ability and potential in academic and/or community activities and have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.2.
Kren is outreach chair for Women in Aerospace, a member and former outreach board assistant for the Society of Women Engineers, a propulsion engineer on the Purdue Space Program liquids team, and is in Sigma Gamma Tau, the honor society for aerospace engineering.
Kren’s essay for the scholarship focused primarily on her effort to increase STEM outreach among women and young girls. The topic was fitting for the scholarship, considering Earhart was an aviation pioneer and inspired development and growth, especially for women, in aerospace engineering fields.
“Of all the scholarships that are available, this one allowed me to discuss my passion for aerospace, in addition to my dedication to engineering outreach,” Kren says. “Amelia Earhart is one of my role models in aerospace. She empowered women and was a leader in aerospace, so, of course I thought, ‘Yes, I’m applying to this.’
“Just as Amelia Earhart had the courage to boldly achieve her dreams in light of the social conventions she faced, while promoting other women to do the same, I walk a similar path. The goal: to not only become an aerospace engineer, but also promote other women to pursue a career in engineering.”
Kren has helped create supplemental education opportunities for women in Purdue’s First-Year Engineering Program; initiated functions to educate Purdue women about what a career in aerospace engineering is like; generated projects for K-12 students as part of SWE; and is intent on improving professional opportunities with networking to aid current Purdue aerospace students.
Kren also recently finished her first co-op rotation at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. She spent a semester working in main propulsion systems and will return this summer to work in engine systems.