From Campus to the Cosmos: Internship Readies Eagle for her Future

Kaley Eaton (’24) is a senior Engineering Physics student with dreams of becoming an astronaut and exploring the unknown. Over this past summer, she was a spaceflight hardware intern with Science Systems and Applications Incorporated (SSAI) at NASA Goddard in Maryland.

Spaceflight Hardware Internship

The summer before her internship, Eaton got a call from SSAI’s hiring manager after he had received her resume from someone else. The opportunity that summer didn't work out, but Eaton had made the first step—making an impression.

When she heard that SSAI would be at Embry-Riddle’s Career Expo, she stopped by the booth and left a good impression on the president of the company. She was encouraged to apply for their internship opportunities and the rest is history.

“This was my first internship ever,” she said. “I was just excited to have the experience and the opportunity to finally get an internship.”

Kaley Eaton and her NASA mentor testing the Digitizer Card for Project Dragon/SQRLi. (Photo: Kaley Eaton)

In her role, Eaton was supporting Code 596 with NASA’s New Frontiers mission, Project Dragonfly.

“My big thing was just going through, helping create other procedures, as well as testing our own procedures on some of the cards. So, basically like a lab manual, just going through the steps and taking down data and making sure that the data looked great,” Eaton explained. “And whenever something didn’t look pretty or didn’t look as expected, going back through schematics and trying to figure out what’s happening.”

Eaton was one of three interns on the project, and she was thrilled to be working on something that will be going to space: “That was really cool to be able to say, ‘Wow, I actually learned this in school, I’m actually using it and it is actually going into space.’”

At the end of her internship, Eaton was offered a remote co-op with SSAI while she finishes her senior year.

New Perspectives and Outlooks

Eaton’s internship even took her to Capitol Hill with Citizens for Space Exploration, speaking with Maryland’s representatives and senators about the importance of funding NASA for space exploration.

“A lot of students at Embry-Riddle and other colleges that see themselves ending up in the space field really need that support and that help of NASA funding,” she explained. “Being able to talk to these high-level people about my experience and seeing their support for space exploration was really inspiring.”

One of the biggest things Eaton learned was that you don’t have to be a NASA employee to work with NASA: “There are various ways of becoming a NASA employee other than going through Pathways internship programs and becoming a Civil Servant. You can work for a private company and work with NASA as a contractor.”

She also gained a new perspective on how much work really goes into a launch—meetings, teamwork, mistakes and troubleshooting.

Getting to Know Embry-Riddle

Eaton first learned about Embry-Riddle from a teacher’s lanyard. She researched the school online and found that Embry-Riddle might be a good option for her.

“If it wasn’t for that teacher having that lanyard, I don’t know if I ever would have found out about Embry-Riddle. But I knew where I was wanting to go with my career, and I felt like Embry-Riddle really encapsulated that.”

When she first toured Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach Campus, she was interested in Aerospace Engineering, but she switched to Astronomy & Astrophysics when she found it was more space-focused. In her first year University 101 class, she was introduced to Engineering Physics, which turned out to be exactly what she was looking for.

“The Engineering Physics program at Riddle perfectly combined electrical engineering with space instrumentation and spacecraft, as well as mechanical engineering and aerospace. I feel like Engineering Physics gives me a taste of the cool stuff from all different majors,” Eaton explained.

Navigating College

Coming from out of state as a first-generation college student, Eaton had a lot of uncertainties her first year at Embry-Riddle—not knowing anyone else on campus, not knowing how scholarships and loans worked, not knowing how registration worked or where classrooms were.

Getting a job in ERNIE Central as a freshman helped her out with all of her concerns, and she says it has made a difference on both her Embry-Riddle experience and her future. Being in the thick of the financial aid and registrar's offices allowed her to help herself while helping others.

“My mom has always been my biggest supporter,” Eaton says. “My mom is definitely number one.”

Another support in her life has been Michelle Lucas (’00), founder of Higher Orbits, a nonprofit organization promoting STEM to high schoolers through spaceflight. Eaton attended a Go for Launch camp in high school, where she met Lucas.

Eaton also finds support in her friends and classmates. She is extremely active on campus – she’s in track & field and fraternity and sorority life, along with being the College of Arts and Sciences senator in the Student Government Association (SGA) and a resident assistant (RA).

Advice for Her Peers

“I came from a small town in nowhere Massachusetts. I'm a first-generation college student. No one in my family has ever gone into a STEM field. I come from a single-parent background. Ever since I was five years old, my parents have been divorced,” Eaton said. “I think about the past and my past experiences as just one of the many adversities that I’ve had to overcome. . . It’s not going to be perfect, it’s not gonna be pretty, but there’s always a way up.”

Eaton’s main piece of advice for students pursuing internships is “don’t give up.” While other students had internships since their first year, Eaton didn’t find one until the summer before her senior year. But she didn’t give up – she kept applying, attending career expos and putting her name and face out there until something clicked.

She also pointed out that being well-rounded by being involved on campus in organizations, clubs and research projects can be more relevant to internship recruiters than having straight A’s.

Looking to the Future

Eaton’s big-picture plans after graduation include pursuing a master’s degree and a doctorate, becoming an astronaut and possibly even coming back to Embry-Riddle to teach. But until then?

“I definitely want to hike the full Appalachian Trail. That’s one of my big goals . . . I'm just really waiting for everything to fall into place. Kind of like a puzzle, like the little puzzle pieces.”

Complete your own puzzle with Embry-Riddle. Start your application today.