Hello, I'm Sofia Goodwin. I am an Instrument-rated pilot, ultramarathoner, Ironman 70.3 finisher, and a Nevada Union High School Valedictorian with a passion for aviation and the outdoors. Ever since I can remember, becoming an airline pilot was my dream. I am pursuing a professional flight aviation degree from San Jose State University. Involving myself on campus with the Women in Aviation Club at SJSU (will be the historian next semester) and working off campus at San Martin airport as a fueler.
I want to be a pilot because it is a fascinating and fun career. But my dream isn't just about me having fun; it's also about encouraging other young women to become airline pilots. When I was little, I saw women pilots welcoming us onto planes, and I'd think, "I want to be like her." If I become an airline pilot, I will inspire others and share my journey with those who want to do the same.
One of my teachers, Wendy Mora, is a big inspiration for me, and I want to be like her in helping girls like me in the future. I'll do this by volunteering at schools and advising others who want to become pilots. Also, I want to create a social media platform to offer free advice and address questions related to pursuing an aviation career. Navigating the complexities of becoming a pilot can be daunting. Having had others guidance, I understand the importance of mentorship. I hope to empower and assist people in realizing their dreams within the aviation industry.
Outside aviation, I pursue goals with huge dedication. From summiting Mt. Whitney to completing an Ironman 70.3 triathlon, showing I am a well-rounded, hardworking individual. My experiences extend to community service, including trash pickups with my high school climate change club, volunteering with Random Acts of Kindness events, volunteering at the save Reid-Hillview Airport Day and being a special needs assistant for the Nevada Union Ski Team. Academically, I am achieving Dean's scholar at SJSU while juggling responsibilities, including balancing a job to support my flight training, being involved in clubs, and other hobbies. In both high school and middle school, I was awarded valedictorian.
One of my biggest challenges was after a flight lesson, when I was biking back to campus from the airport, I was hit by a car. My face was entirely bashed open, and I had lost three front teeth. There were so many stitches, and my nose was bloodied and broken. Luckily, I could still walk. After I was off the prescribed pain medication, I went back to flight training. I had not flown in a while and was rusty. Then, with the end of the school year approaching, I had to take another break to study for finals. After finals, I had to live in my car instead of moving back home because the school charged more money to extend our time living in our dorms, and I wanted to finish flight training in San Jose. After about a month, I passed my instrument check ride and was overjoyed!
My aviation pursuits are funded by myself and my parents when needed. Luckily, I have received a few other scholarships, that are why I am at this point in my aviation journey today. I work full-time over the summer and winter and part-time during the school year to fund my training. This scholarship would be outstanding in helping me get my commercial license so that I can begin a flying job! It would relieve a significant burden of costs for me, and I would be incredibly grateful!
The prospect of contributing to an aerospace project team dedicated to designing critical enhancements and updates to America’s missile defense enterprise architecture is an exciting prospect. My enthusiasm to work in the aerospace design field stems from the intervention of a wonderful mentor and teacher. My physics teacher at the US Air Force Academy High School helped me marry my love of engineering design with my high aptitude for mathematics. His contagious passion for this field pointed me towards an area I would otherwise likely never come across on my own, let alone receive the encouragement to pursue it. He helped me muster the self-confidence to pursue my talents and interests, irrespective of whether they aligned with my parent’s plans for me.
Discovering aerospace design and engineering, in general, could almost be described as a child first discovering the existence of Hogwarts. Growing up in a household where neither of my parents had an academic background beyond basic algebra, my fascination with aerospace design was absolutely an anomaly of the bell curve and the entire page, for that matter. My disabled mother and my perpetually absent career military father had interests that greatly deviated from my own. They naturally pushed me to look at fields aligned with their interests instead.
Aerospace projects and design opportunities offer a unique combination of high-level real-world implications, directly affecting the security of American, NATO, and trans-Pacific partners. The field is also constantly evolving as it continually pushes the boundaries of possibility and is forever at the leading edge of aerospace concepts and design, which I find incredibly exciting.
Ideally, my involvement in the project would span all stages of platform design, development, and testing. This would allow me to apply my skills and knowledge in a comprehensive manner, thereby bolstering the technological reliability of existing and future systems. I believe that my contribution can make a significant difference in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of our missile defense systems. I am eager to matriculate into the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, where I was recently accepted. The chance to learn from the experiences of helping project teams I will work with tackle aerospace challenges side-by-side with the personnel from nearby Peterson Space Force Base and Schriever Space Force Base on current real-world challenges is an amazing privilege I eagerly look forward to.
My journey towards aerospace design has been unconventional, yet my commitment to pursuing this field is unwavering. I intend to personally contribute to the advancement of our missile defense enterprise architecture. I want a career of significance, and I cannot imagine anything more significant than continually pushing the boundaries of possible in aerospace.
When NASA launches a rocket and it doesn’t explode, they state “Launch successful”. When I flew the planes we made in my engineering class, try after try after try, I eventually landed it, and it was a success. These events have in common the idea that a goal was set out, that goal was accomplished, and there was more to be done afterward. My time in high school has defined my life in various ways, both with my dreams of impacting Aerospace, and the hardest moment of my life, losing my father. I had my freshman year over Zoom, and then in February, my father died at just fifty years old. It shocked us all, but I pushed through, continuing to learn and push forward in life, it's what he would have wanted. NASA is not satisfied with just one launch, and I am not done with just high school engineering courses. My courses have given me a glimpse into fluid dynamics, mechanical forces, and thermodynamics, and my mind has been expanded to think more about how rockets and planes work. A goal I possess is to attend an institution that will provide me with further knowledge of our current understanding of aerospace mechanics. While going to college, I must work because my family can’t send me fully paid. If I have a scholarship, I can focus on my passion, to change the industry. I want to enter this industry and change it, so success in my job would look like me achieving this goal, leaving a lasting and impactful trace on the aerospace industry. I believe that some way I can work with materials as well as devise different designs for how to make our rockets safer, more fuel-efficient, and faster. I am passionate about space crafts and flight, and I can help a lot of people by revolutionizing that, but I need to gain knowledge from a university to achieve this. The reason I want to impact this industry is because I like rockets. I built model rockets both as a kid and a teen, and visiting museums with them has always been a great experience seeing these machines. I want to do more for this industry because that would be the most fun and fulfilling goal in my life. But these dreams of mine rely on me having the time to achieve them, and with how expensive college is, debt is certain to dissolve my plans. This is why I write, to ask for a scholarship to help me get through college and make a larger impact on this world than I can right now.
