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age:20 E ver since she was young, L ainey Drake has been fascinated with learning about the world around her, especially when it came to space. She grew up staring at the stars, reading science fiction and learning about NASA. Then in high school, the world opened up for L ainey as she was introduced to physics. “It all stemmed from a basic love of space,” said L ainey. “I always wanted to know more, and math was definitely my best subject in school. When I got into physics, I learned you could use math and different types of physics to learn more about the world around you.” Now, she is 20 years old and starting the second semester of her junior year at Wake Forest U niversity, double-majoring in physics and theater. In 20 20, she was accepted into the Brooke Owens Fellowship. Out of 56 applicants from 290 universities and 15 countries, L ainey was then one of 40 to be accepted. This fellowship provides internships for young women and other gender minorities in the aerospace industry. She did an internship at V irgin Galactic in L as Cruces, N.M.,
in the engineering department. U nfortunately, due to COV ID19, she had to attend the internship virtually. This summer, she is staying in the V irgin family and has a paid internship at V irgin Orbit in L ong Beach, Calif. L ainey will be working with system engineers and doing other tasks that are very similar to her internship last year. Along with the coding, she will be in person to get the hands-on experience of working on hardware. “I want to do avionics,” said L ainey. “I’m working off of one experience I had and loved it. I am just here for the ride because I know I don’t know enough to decide right now, but that’s enough.” After graduation, L ainey hopes to move to Southern California, a huge driver of space with big and small space companies, to work full-time in the aerospace field. “I enjoy learning about everything around me,” said L ainey. “The universe is so vast, so I will always be learning and figuring stuff out for the rest of my life, and that excites me.” — Rac he l W ar t ian
Lainey Drake
What is your favorite dessert? Tiramisu What is your favorite play? “Baltimore Waltz” by Paula Voge
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