Astronaut Scholarship Foundation 2023-24 Presentation and Lecture

Three North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University undergraduate students have been selected as 2023 Astronaut Scholars, an elite scholarship awarded annually to the nation’s most academically accomplished students pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) degrees.

Kristi Barnes, Maya Odom and Breyana Robinson will each receive up to $15,000 for eligible educational expenses and lifelong engagement with astronauts, executives, STEM researchers and innovators, Astronaut Scholar alumni and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), the nonprofit founded in 1984 by surviving members of the Mercury 7 crew. They also received an all-expense paid trip to the ASF Innovator’s Week & Gala in Orlando, Florida, in August 2023 to present their research at a technical conference.

Barnes, Odom and Robinson – all students in the university’s Honors College – will be publicly recognized by astronaut and retired Air Force Col. Frederick Drew Gregory during special campus presentation and lecture Thursday, Jan. 25, at 6 p.m. in Harrison Auditorium.

Gregory was chosen as a member of the first class of Space Shuttle astronauts in 1978. He became the first American with an African lineage to pilot a spacecraft, the orbiter Challenger on mission STS-51B, in 1985.

The event is free and open to the public. A clear bag policy remains in effect at the auditorium: bag(s) must be 12” x 6” x 12” or smaller, and made of clear plastic, vinyl or PVC. Non-approved bags are not permitted.

For more information, email Alsace-Lorraine Gallop, A&T’s national scholarships and fellowships coordinator and Fulbright Program Adviser, at acgallop@ncat.edu.

Students and faculty should email Gallop before Feb. 5 to learn more about the required endorsement application process for the 2024 Astronaut Scholarship in time to meet the 5 p.m. ET Feb. 27 campus deadline.