Page 46 - Engineering Career Guide, 4th Edition

entrepreneurship
Start Your Own Business
Engineering school can teach you strong analytical and problem-solving skills, which are valuable in business.
Aisha Bowe ignored the advice of her guidance counselor, who suggested a career in cosme- tology. “Deep down, I knew I wanted some- thing more for myself.” Instead, she pursued aero- space engineering, and became a mission engineer at NASA. But she didn’t stop there.
Her educational journey started at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she studied mathematics. She then obtained an un- dergraduate and master’s degrees in aerospace engi- neering at the University of Michigan. “From a young age, I thought there was no way I could go to a four- year university or do anything ambitious — but I found out that all those things just weren’t true,” she says.
While she was a rock star rocket scientist, entre- preneurship was something that called out to her. She says, “I wanted to have exposure to running my own business and working with nonprofits and on techni- cal things I enjoyed...It really came to a head when I identified a mentor who was a business leader that had walked a similar path and was willing to mentor me in the transition.”
Bowe founded STEMBoard, a tech company that specializes in data analytics and IT modernization for both government and private-sector clients. It is now
a highly successful company with millions in revenue and is recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in America. In 2023 Bowe re- ceived a $947 million government contract to further scale and grow STEMBoard. Beyond technology, the organization conducts educational workshops to in- troduce historically underrepresented youth to vital concepts like coding and engineering.
Indeed, her passion is empowering students to em- brace careers in STEM. “I’ve dedicated my life to help- ing people break stereotypes,” said Bowe. She raised $2 million in venture capital to fund LINGO, a self- paced coding kit for students. More than 5,000 stu- dents, from middle school to college-age, have bene- fitted from LINGO’s easily understandable method of learning technical concepts. These kits are readily available at retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Tar- get. As she succinctly puts it, “Social good and profit- ability are not mutually exclusive business drivers.”
In 2024, she’s set to be part of the first all-African- American women spaceflight crew, assembled by Blue Origin, a private spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos. Her flight comes just over 30 years af- ter NASA astronaut Mae Jemison made history as the first Black woman to travel to space in 1992, with four other Black women astronauts since following in her footsteps.
Aisha Bowe’s creative efforts show how much she cares about sparking curiosity, promoting diversity, and making a big difference in the world of STEM.
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COURTESY AISHA BOWE