Record Number of Embry-Riddle Eagles Awarded Highly Competitive Defense Department SMART Scholarships

A record-breaking 13 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students have received prestigious 2025 U.S. Department of Defense SMART Scholar awards, placing them on a direct path to work on cutting-edge research and technology in DoD labs and agencies.

Jacob BlantonThese full-ride scholarships include full tuition for up to five years, as well as mentorship, summer internships, a stipend, and guaranteed employment after graduation.

“Embry-Riddle students’ strong academic records, research achievements, and clearly defined career goals make them outstanding candidates for the SMART Scholarship-for-Service Program’s prestigious, merit-based award,” said Jennifer Schaeffer, director of the university’s Office of Nationally Competitive Awards & Scholar Development. 

The SMART scholarship enables students to pursue their education debt-free, gain hands-on experience through summer internships at their DoD sponsor facility and step into full-time employment immediately following graduation, she said. For each year that SMART awardees receive funding, they work a year within labs and agencies of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force.

SMART scholar awardee Emily Coello, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree and an accelerated master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, will intern this summer and later work at the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic in Charleston, South Carolina.

As president of Embry-Riddle’s Autonomous Maritime Robotics Association (AMRA), she said the robotics experience she gained through the student organization, which designs and builds robotic submarines for competition, helped make her a stronger candidate for the scholarship. 

“I picked up a lot of coding and AMRA pushed me to do that and gave me that hands-on experience,” she said.

Coello, who is from Staten Island, New York, is also working on biomechanical research with Dr. Victor Huayamave, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and would eventually like to earn her doctorate and teach.

Emily Coello“I found engineering very hard at the beginning, but my professors at Embry-Riddle and other students helped me,” she said. “Later, I discovered that I love teaching and seeing that moment when things finally click for people.”

Awardee Jacob Blanton, who is pursuing a bachelor’s and accelerated master’s in Aerospace Engineering, is looking forward to interning this summer and later working at the Missile Defense Agency at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

“The Missile Defense Agency works with hypersonic rocket propulsion, which is what I want to do with my career,” he said. “I want to work on the engine systems of rockets. No part of a launch vehicle is more fascinating.”

An Honors Program student, Blanton is co-founder of the GEM3 Propellant Viability Test research team, which is examining various properties of the experimental propellant’s viability and application for launch vehicles reaching various Earth orbits.

He is also active with the Embry Riddle Orbital Research Association, a student organization that designs and builds small satellites, known as CubeSats. Blanton currently serves as lead payload engineer for the Radiation Orbital Shielding Investigation Satellite (ROSISat), which aims to collect data on the solar radiation resistance of various materials in low-earth orbit.

“I would like to eventually use the skills I have to send our astronauts back to the moon and onward to Mars,” said Blanton.

Brian Baker-McEvilly, who is earning his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, will be interning at the National Air & Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio this summer. After graduation, he will work full-time at the center and hopes to remain in the field of space domain awareness.

Brian Baker-McEvilly“I applied to the SMART fellowship because of the financial support as well as the pathway it sets up for a career in the DoD,” he said. “It covers my tuition and provides a significant stipend through the remainder of my Ph.D., and the internship opportunity allows me to become familiar with my sponsoring facility and develop the professional tools needed to be successful in the DoD.”

Baker-McEvilly, who also earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle, conducts research with the Space Trajectories and Applications Research Group, led by Dr. David Canales Garcia, assistant professor of Aerospace Engineering.

“I am involved in a couple of projects, all within the field of astrodynamics and space domain awareness,” he said. “One example is a project to design a constellation of observational spacecraft to view objects in the region of space between the Earth and moon, which will likely also be the topic of my dissertation.”

Other students who were awarded DoD SMART scholarships are listed as follows:

• Master’s student Matthew Scheinblum-Brewer, Systems Engineering
• Ph.D. student Francisco Bustamante, Aerospace Engineering
• Senior Colin Joyce, Electrical Engineering
• Sophomore Camren Surunis, Mechanical Engineering
• Master’s student Timothy Mascal, Systems Engineering
• Bachelor’s-Accelerated Master’s student Caden Hoffer, Civil Engineering
• Senior Arthur Taylor, Aerospace Engineering
• Senior Kellan Shew, Computer Science
• Freshman Nora Hancock, Civil Engineering
• Junior Joseph Rigo, Software Engineering