Sister Profile

Ready to Launch

As an analyst for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration within the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, Rachel Sholder, Zeta Beta-Lehigh University, works hard to ensure the safe passage of NASA missions through outer space and securely back to Earth. Contrary to this typical objective, Rachel’s mission in 2021 is to crash. This summer, Rachel and her colleagues will help launch the nation’s first planetary defense mission—the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)—to send an impactor spacecraft on a one-way journey into the cosmos. If all goes according to plan, the shuttle will crash with an asteroid to test NASA’s ability to redirect asteroids that may threaten the future of the Blue Planet.

Rachel is the sole woman on the fault management systems engineering team, which develops computer scripts to test the spacecraft for potential failures. It’s her mission to ensure DART hits its intended target, the Didymos asteroid. Seeing her code start to take shape as the DART team tests the shuttle for launch is an exciting realization of more than a year of work in an area of STEM that is new territory for Rachel. The DART mission is Rachel’s first time as a computer programmer and systems engineer. “It’s both exciting learning something new and completely nerve wracking,” she said. “There has definitely been a learning curve, but I was thrilled about the mission and the opportunity [DART] presented.” Before DART, Rachel worked in cost modeling, predicting the price tag of NASA missions. It was a job she says “found her” at a career fair in the final year of her bachelor’s/master’s program in mathematics and statistics, respectively. The previous year, Rachel had applied to nearly 90 internships with little response from prospective employers. This time, APL was one of her first stops at the fair and, in less than a month, she was heading to Maryland for a job interview. Rachel was drawn to the opportunity to apply what she enjoyed most about the mathematical sciences and statistics—being able to use numerical equations to solve real-world challenges. “So much of our day-to-day world is driven by the numbers,” she said. “I liked the idea that there could be a cure for cancer if we could just look behind those numbers to find it.”

After two years as a cost analyst for APL and NASA, Rachel was ready to further her problem-solving skills when the job with DART presented itself. Though she had only dabbled in computer programming as an undergrad in college, Rachel was eager for the challenge.

Originally from Montville, New Jersey, Rachel now lives in Baltimore, Maryland. When she's not busy working, she enjoys hiking and watching scary movies.

With help from another teammate new to computer programming, Rachel has excelled in her new role. She has been able to directly apply the leadership and interpersonal skills honed during her collegiate experience in Alpha Gam to effectively navigate the new landscape. “Living in a house with 60 different women and being a part of Executive Council really prepares you for the realities of the working world,” said Rachel. She also attributes Alpha Gam for her ability to work effectively with her teammate to find and lean on each other’s strengths. “As [Vice President Member Development], I worked super closely with the President. We were able to work so well together and successfully lead a group of 120+ women," she said. "It’s been awesome having a great working relationship like that again, but now in the real world. Working with another newcomer to the project whose strengths are totally different than mine has allowed us to work together efficiently while also learning a lot from each other.”

Learn more about Rachel's team and keep track of their mission at Dart or follow the APL on Twitter.

By Beth Hartnett Jager, Delta Tau–Chapman University. Beth channels her inner Lois Lane for several news outlets in southern California. When not writing, she enjoys being a mom to daughter, Aurora, and serving as a board member for the Orange County Alumnae Chapter. Beth is the Associate Director of Institutional Philanthropy and Sponsored Research at Claremont McKenna College.