January 24, 2012
The fact that Rebekah Sosland, a senior aerospace engineering major, received a double nomination for the Texas Exes President’s Leadership Award attests not only to the strength of her leadership skills, but also the tremendous impact she has had on her fellow students and academic leaders. The award, established in 1985, annually recognizes six undergraduate students who have demonstrated outstanding leadership at The University of Texas at Austin.
After learning of her nominations by both ASE Undergraduate Advisor Sarah Kitten, and the Director of the Cockrell School’s Women in Engineering Program Tricia Berry, Sosland was ecstatic when she received news of being selected as the Spring 2012 award recipient.
Sosland has shown herself to be a leader since the moment she stepped foot onto the UT campus.
“From the first day I met Rebekah during ASE summer orientation three years ago, I knew she was going to be a strong leader among our students,” Kitten said. “In the first week of classes I invited her to join a new ASE student group known as LUNAR (Leadership, Undergraduate Networking And Recruitment) Council, a council made up of ASE student organization leaders and class representatives. From the beginning, Bekah was very participative and contributed hours of great ideas and enthusiasm to the group. She is still a member for her fourth year and has only missed one meeting.”
In addition to LUNAR, Sosland has served as Junior Vice President for the Longhorn Rocket Association (LRA) and worked as a mentor for an ASE FIG (Freshman Interest Group) and the WEP Pal program (peer and precollege mentoring). She was also instrumental in starting up the ASE student group now known as WIALD, (Women in Aerospace for Leadership and Development), serving as President during its inception.
One of Sosland’s strong leadership qualities is her ability to bring a variety of people together.
After joining LRA during her first semester at UT, she noticed that the organization might benefit by participating in a competition. Sosland suggested the group work with Fredericksburg High School (her alma mater) to build a rocket to be launched during their annual event, Systems Go. Spearheading the effort, Sosland and the LRA launched their rocket along with 60 other high schools.
During her sophomore year, Sosland began to notice how few females were in the ASE department. Dr. Armand Chaput, leader of the Air Systems Lab, also took notice. Together they worked with former Professor Linda Hayes and former instructor and alumnus Lisa Guerra to develop WIALD. With assistance from Berry and Kitten, the organization took off. Since then WIALD has launched a payload aboard a ballistic rocket in White Sands, New Mexico and has plans to participate in another launch within the year.
Sosland has become an integral component of many women’s experiences in the ASE department. In Sosland’s nomination letter, Berry discussed the impact she has had on her fellow students.
“Rebekah is interested in developing her own leadership skills and is also interested in helping her peers develop theirs,” Berry said. “She was a recent recipient of the WEP Champion Award which recognizes students who are champions for the recruitment and retention of women in engineering at UT Austin. She will be a leader for the Cockrell School not only during the rest of her time at UT, but as an alum well into the future. “
Sosland believes one of the biggest benefits for members of WIALD is that it has become a forum of shared knowledge that encourages innovation and growth.
“Through this experience, the most valuable thing I’ve learned is that knowledge is power when it’s shared. WIALD has doubled in size and more women are staying in aerospace. I think that’s because the power of knowledge is now being shared by all of its members.”
Sosland wants to give back to the world after she graduates in 2013. Her future plans include working in industry and then going on to teach.
“My ultimate goal is to leave the world a little bit of a better place and use my engineering skills to do that. I have this passion for hands-on learning that I really want to pass on.”
