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Golter Receives Inaugural McGhee Tyson Airport Aerospace Engineering Scholarship

Golter and Howard Vogel

Samantha Golter with Howard Vogel, Chairman of the McGhee Tyson Airport Board of Commissioners.

Samantha Golter is the first recipient of the McGhee Tyson Airport Aerospace Engineering Scholarship at the University of Tennessee.

McGhee Tyson Airport created the scholarship to support future aerospace professionals as well as partner with UT.

Golter, who is a junior in MABE, used the scholarship money to fund her trip to the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Conference held in Minneapolis last October. Attending the conference allowed Golter to strengthen her connections with companies she is interested in working for after graduation, attend educational sessions and keynote presentations, and network with leaders in the aerospace industry. She also had the opportunity to reconnect with some former co-workers from Boeing, where she interned last summer.

Golter’s inspiration to become an engineer came from her dad. “I was raised in an environment where fixing broken possessions was always preferable to throwing them away or replacing them,” said Golter. “I have always been surrounded by the engineering mindset.”

Her interest in space began during her senior year of high school when she took a class where the detection of gravitational waves was frequently discussed. “I was captivated by discovery,” said Golter. “I became curious about space and the fact that, collectively, the human race has so little knowledge about phenomena beyond the scope of our own planet.”

The desire to be an engineer and her interest in space made Golter’s decision to major in aerospace engineering easy. “Choosing aerospace engineering as my major was the best decision I have made,” said Golter.

Golter currently serves as an ambassador for the Tickle College of Engineering and is a teaching assistant for the Honors Engineering Fundamentals program. She serves on the Provost’s Student Advisory Committee and is a member of the Engineering Honors Program, AIAA, and SWE. She is mentoring two students in the SWE mentoring program and held two chair positions within the society last year. Golter also worked as an undergraduate researcher for Assistant Professor Stephanie TerMaath.