Starting young in the industry can be challenging: from getting internships, finding mentors, building a network, and figuring out the opportunities that exist in the expansive/interdisciplinary aerospace sector, many aspects of entering the industry can seem difficult. Gitika Gorthi, Founder/CEO of IgnitedThinkers (www.ignitedthinkers.org) and a freshman at Columbia University in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences aspiring to be an aerospace physician and astronaut, breaks it down to provide students insight into getting your foot in the door in the aerospace industry.

Gitika is a former NASA Ames Research Center GeneLab Intern, a student researcher at top institutions/laboratories (Brown University, University of Central Florida, Columbia Medical School in the Center for Radiological Research), and an advocate for inclusion and diversity in the aerospace industry through her social media (@GitikaGorthi on LinkedIn and Twitter) platforms and the non-profit she founded, IgnitedThinkers. Gitika is a strong believer that age is not a boundary to contributing to the aerospace industry, and young students provide a unique insight in the workplace that is much needed to solve challenging problems we need to solve as we hope to send humans to Mars and beyond one day.

If you are a young professional interested in learning some tips/tricks in starting out in the aerospace industry, join the ""Navigating Your Career in the Aerospace Industry as a Student"" session with Gitika Gorthi.

Gitika Gorthi is the Founder and CEO of IgnitedThinkers, a non-profit organization she founded in the 8th-grade to spread space education and her love for aerospace to students across the world (www.ignitedthinkers.org). She is a freshman at Columbia University in their College of Engineering and Applied Science as a Davis Scholar. Gitika is an aspiring aerospace physician, medical researcher, and astronaut.

Through IgnitedThinkers, Gitika is working towards breaking the glass ceiling for minorities in the aerospace industry, incorporating more hands-on research space science-based activities into elementary education curriculums, and igniting the passions of all students by providing them the opportunity to explore and create. IgnitedThinkers' mission and vision statement are simple: to ignite, inform, and inspire students across the world.

Conducting medical research at the Baylor College of Medicine Space Medicine Center, researching wind turbines at the University of Central Florida at Raghavan Research Group, working with professor Dr. Prasanta Pal from Brown University to develop telemedicine technology, student researcher at Columbia Medical School Center for Radiological Research, and interning last summer at NASA Ames Research Center at GeneLab, Gitika is climbing towards her goals going into aerospace medicine research. Gitika is extremely excited about the new understanding studying humans in space will bring to treat diseases here on Earth and the medical technological advancements that will occur on Earth with the greater utilization of telemedicine for deep-space exploration missions. Most recently, Gitika was named one of the Top 100 Women in Aerospace and Aviation Professionals to Follow on LinkedIn in 2022. The future of aerospace is exciting, and Gitika is working to make it a more diverse and equitable environment for everyone.

Furthermore, Gitika is a 2021-2022 Teen Board of Director of the Girl Scout Nation’s Capital and 2020-2022 Girls Advisory Board Member for Girl Scouts USA. She provides strategic advice to help make the scouting program more diverse, equitable, and inclusive for all girls.