A 22-Year-Old MIT Student Is Already Working For NASA

A 22-year-old college student is leading the new generation of pioneering black women depicted in Hidden Figures. Tiera GuInn is a Rocket and Structural Design and Analysis Engineer working on the space launch system that Boeing is constructing for NASA.

Guinn, who will graduate form MIT with a 5.0 GPA, is designing the “largest and most powerful” rocket in history.

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“It’s really humbling,” she told Alabama news station, WBRC . “I design components for the rockets themselves and then I analyze them to make sure they’re structurally sound.”

Guinn was only 6 years old when she began doing math exercises with her mother.

“When we would go to the grocery store she was get me to clip coupons, put it in my coupon organizer, and by the time we’d get to the register I had to calculate the exact total, including tax. “

“One day I saw a plane fly by and I just had this realization, ‘I can design planes. I’m going to be an aerospace engineer,’” she continued. “So every middle school class that I chose, it was directed towards that goal. The high school that I chose, that took me an hour to get to everyday, it was because I wanted to be an aerospace engineer.”

Guinn pulls inspiration from Hidden Figures (her favorite movie), and wants to see more diversity her in field.

“You should see a black woman as rocket propulsion engineers, as rocket structural and analysis and design engineers. You should see more women in CEO positions.”

While Guinn has yet to reach her personal “success point,” she offered some sound advice for anyone chasing a dream.

“You have to look forward to your dream, and you can’t let anybody get in the way of it,” she said. “No matter how tough it may be, no matter how many tears you might cry, you have to keep pushing.”

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