Engineer, Reservist, Eagle: Multifaceted Student Lands Dream Internship

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University sophomore Savannah Burke juggles being a full-time Aerospace Engineering student at the Daytona Beach Campus, while simultaneously serving as a logistics specialist in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Embry-Riddle student Savannah Burke (pictured second row, far left) is membership chair of the Daytona Beach Campus’ National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) chapter. In fall 2023, she attended NSBE's Region 3 conference in Atlanta. (Photo: Stanley Tucker)

“If it were easy, everyone would be doing it,” said Burke, who also has a work-study job and serves as membership chair for the campus’s National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) chapter. “My NSBE team and my leadership in the military — I wouldn’t have made it where I am without them.”

She wasn’t able to do an internship last summer because she had to work, but this year, she got plenty of encouragement from her fellow NSBE members to apply for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory internship.

“All of the NSBE board members had internships their freshman year,” said Burke, who attended NSBE’s regional conference held in Atlanta in November. “They helped me because they had already been through the process.”

She also credits the military for support after recently landing the internship at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Maryland. Burke said she will be working in guidance navigation and controls with the lab throughout the summer.

“When I got the internship, everyone was really happy and excited for me,” said Burke, who is from Las Vegas. “I’m very far from home, so the military is my second family.”

A Legacy of Military Service

Burke grew up with a father, stepfather and two uncles who served in the military, so enlisting in the U.S. Air Force right after high school seemed like a natural choice. As one of seven children, she said it also helped her pay for college.

She recalled visiting Florida three months before starting basic training for the military; there, she stumbled upon Embry-Riddle.

“I enlisted at 17 and completely altered my college plans after discovering aerospace engineering during a visit to Florida,” she said. “It just encompassed everything I wanted.”

When she isn’t in class, Burke works part-time at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Daytona Beach Vet Center, which provides mental health counseling for veterans, service members and their families.

Hands-On Experience

Burke first became interested in engineering in seventh grade, when she and her classmates were assigned construction projects — like building a roller coaster in the school hallways.

Embry-Riddle Aerospace Engineering student Savannah Burke (pictured third from left) is serving as a logistics specialist in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, assisting a neighboring unit in a training exercise. (Photo: Master Sergeant Gordon)

“Class was so fun,” she said. “My physics teacher would help us with all these crazy projects.”

Her Uncle Andy, who served in the U.S. Air Force, also fostered her love for engineering, Burke said, by helping her build go-carts and other creations when she was a child.

“He would just build stuff, like his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, with no formal engineering education,” she said. “My uncle influenced me a lot about what engineering is and how tinkering and building something that might fail is all part of the process. He definitely sparked my creativity.”

One of Burke’s favorite campus projects is the Pure Water Project, which involves Embry-Riddle students getting hands-on engineering experience by building and installing a solar-powered water purification system for a community in need of clean water.

“I have been on the Pure Water Project’s electrical team since I joined,” she said. “I fell in love with the work so much, I almost switched to electrical engineering.”

Burke also started working last year on a research project exploring fatigue, with Dr. John French, professor of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology and Aerospace Physiology Lab director.

As a reservist, she reports for duty in Biloxi, Mississippi, one weekend a month and for two weeks in the summer.

She is considering graduate school and has a dream to someday start her own STEM-based middle and high school to inspire other teens to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

But for now, Burke is happy to enjoy the present, despite how busy her life is on and off of campus.

“This has been the best experience I’ve had in my life,” she said.