Cari Reinert is the first UT Dallas student to be chosen for the Brooke Owens Fellowship, which recognizes exceptional undergraduate women and gender-minorities with space and aviation internships. She aims to combine her future work in the space industry with global conservation and environmental justice efforts.

International political economy senior Cari Reinert, a Eugene McDermott Scholar, has become the first University of Texas at Dallas student to be selected as a Brooke Owens Fellow.

The fellowship awards exceptional undergraduate women and gender-minorities with space and aviation internships, senior mentorships and a lifelong professional network. This year, 47 fellows were chosen from more than 1,000 applicants based on their “incredible talent, desire to pursue a career in aerospace, standout creative abilities, record of leadership and … commitment to their communities.”

This summer, Reinert and her fellow “Brookies,” as fellowship recipients are known, will start their internships and meet at the annual Brooke Owens Summit in Washington, D.C. They will also join a network of 249 Brookie alumni who are in fields that span all aspects of space and aviation — from engineering and scientific research to policy, journalism and entrepreneurship.

After she graduates from UT Dallas in May, Reinert will begin her fellowship with BryceTech, an analytics and engineering firm that partners with science and technology clients. There, Reinert expects to work on economic analysis in the space industry. She aspires to integrate her future work in the space industry with global conservation and environmental justice efforts.

“She is a young woman with a deep commitment to service, creativity and the potential to transform the aerospace industry. We could not be prouder of her.”

Dr. Donal Skinner, dean of the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College

Dr. Donal Skinner, dean of the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College and the Mary McDermott Cook Chair, said Reinert personifies what the Brooke Owens Fellowship is all about.

“She is a young woman with a deep commitment to service, creativity and the potential to transform the aerospace industry,” he said. “We could not be prouder of her.”

The policy side of the space industry wasn’t always a career interest of Reinert. She came to UT Dallas intending to major in physics after graduating from the Texas Academy of Mathematics & Science at the University of North Texas.

But during her first year at UTD, she took a global politics course taught by Dr. Clint Peinhardt, professor of political science, public policy and political economy in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. The class introduced her to the concept of space policy.

Cari Reinert joined NASA earlier this year as an environmental justice intern in the agency’s applied science program.

“I remember being so interested and intrigued,” she said. “And I started to think, ‘I wonder if there are ways I can combine my interests in science and in space technology with this political economic framework that I’m learning in my classes.’”

Peinhardt said Reinert is an exceptional student.

“She has an infectious love of learning and brings the rest of us along for the ride,” he said. “She’s not afraid of complex topics of either technical or human nature, and she has a knack for exploring the human obstacles to technical progress.”

Reinert further developed her interest in space policy during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That’s when I really started diving into the space industry and learning more about how space and policy connect,” she said. “I found the Brooke Owens Fellowship and decided to apply.”

The fellowship was founded in 2016 to honor the memory of industry pioneer and accomplished pilot D. Brooke Owens, who died in 2016 at the age of 35 from cancer.

An alumna of several internships, Reinert currently works for NASA as an environmental justice intern in the agency’s applied science program. She has also interned with the Aerospace Corp. and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies through the Bill Archer Fellowship Program.

Attending UTD was an easy choice, Reinert said, because of the financial opportunities she was afforded as a McDermott Scholar and a National Merit Scholar. “Nowhere else offered such a comprehensive scholarship,” she said.

And that choice may have changed the course of her career.

“I think being able to have a fully funded college experience and not have debt has helped me to make decisions about what to study that truly enabled me to flourish and grow,” she said. “I don’t think I would have majored in something policy-related if I hadn’t had the financial support of UT Dallas. I am wholeheartedly thankful to be a Comet.”