Morgan State University senior Mikayla Harris has won an astronaut scholarship worth $15,000. Harris is the second consecutive winner of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation from the Baltimore HBCU, according to BlackNews online.
The highly competitive Astronaut Scholarship award was awarded to 44 colleges to 60 students. The scholarships are awarded to the top juniors and seniors who study science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) and plan to pursue careers that will advance their chosen field.
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was founded in 1984 by the Mercury Astronauts, the original seven American astronauts. The goal was to provide exceptional students with scholarships to help the country retain world leadership in science and technology.
Harris, a biology major, minoring in chemistry, said that she applied for the scholarship because she wanted to represent Black women in STEM.
“I wanted to apply to represent Morgan State as well as Black women in STEM,” Harris said. “There is not enough biomedical research that includes Black people, people of color and other minority groups…I am a violinist, so I planned to become a musician. I had not intended to pursue science, but I fell in love with exploring my inquisitions specifically in biomedicine. I truly want to help people and serve my community,” she concluded.
The senior also won the prestigious Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence and was inducted into the national Astronaut Scholar Honor Society. She plans to earn an MD-PhD degree after graduating next spring.
Morgan State University congratulated Harris for winning the scholarship on Twitter.
“Growing the Future is simply what we do. Congrats to Mikayla Harris for earning a $15,000 scholarship from the @AstroScholarFdn. Read more about this stellar senior, her aspirations to represent black women in #STEM and her biomedical research. ?? https://bit.ly/39qmxjJ.”
Growing the Future is simply what we do. Congrats to Mikayla Harris for earning a $15,000 scholarship from the @AstroScholarFdn! ???? Read more about this stellar senior, her aspirations to represent black women in #STEM and her biomedical research. ?? https://t.co/DUTM44AIDf pic.twitter.com/69JNb8RCSi
— Morgan State University (@MorganStateU) September 22, 2021
Harris has no plans to fly to outer space, but she does want to use her knowledge in the future to research space and how it affects the human body. She also wants to study racial disparities in health care and female infertility.
Congratulations, Sis!
