Engineering Student Represents A&T in Boeing TMCF HBCU Scholars Program

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (July 28, 2023) – Rising North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University junior Aliyah Terry, of Charlotte, North Carolina, is among 15 students selected to participate in the highly competitive Boeing Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) Scholar Program’s fifth cohort.

“We established this partnership back in 2018,” said Noel Walker, senior program manager for TMCF. “Within this Boeing TMCF Scholars program, we select students from 13 of our priority partnering HBCUs and North Carolina A&T is one of them.”

The Boeing TMCF Scholar Program provides an unparalleled career opportunity and scholarship for outstanding students attending Boeing HBCU partner schools. This unique opportunity provides students with full college to career support — opening the door to a full-time career with the world’s largest aerospace company, and lead manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems.  This highly competitive program targets students for opportunities in the functional areas of engineering, IT and data analytics, finance/accounting, supply chain management, human resources, environmental health and safety, and facilities management.

Terry, who is studying computer engineering and supply chain management, said she was first introduced to Boeing during the Boeing TMCF Immersion in the summer of her first year in college.

The Boeing TMCF HBCU Immersion is a three-day event where students from across 20 HBCUs are invited to participate with The Boeing Co. to learn more about the ways Boeing impacts the aerospace industry.

“I remember walking into a square space that led down to a narrow stairwell,” Terry said. “It seemed like a simulation at first, something I had never seen before my own eyes. When my foot stepped down on the last step, I looked up into a large circular machine. Five huge wooden panels in between the open space appeared before me. I was standing in the middle of Boeing's wind tunnel. It was then that I thought about the possibilities of my life, the realization that my future stood before me in the form of multimillion-dollar machinery.”

The distinction between the immersion program and the scholars program is that students apply for the latter, which is designed for them to commit to two years of an internship with Boeing and, upon completion of their second internship, be hired full time at Boeing.

“The immersion program is really an early talent program where we look at freshmen and sophomore students from those priority schools,” said Eric Hart, Vice President for Programs and Strategic Fund Development for TMCF. “And what it does is gives them an opportunity to look inside of The Boeing Co. very early in their careers as students so that they can make decisions as to what types of companies that they want to work for in terms of an internship. Freshmen and sophomores are starting internships quite early in their academic pursuits and we want to give them that early exposure in the world of corporate.”

Throughout the immersion, students learn about professional development through a series of sessions that Boeing executives and staffers provide to guide young HBCU students.

“We also have some alum from the Scholars program that are still serving at The Boeing Co. as employees and they come and talk about their experience as a HBCU student and how it translates over to corporate America,” Walker said.

By gaining this experience in her early collegiate career, Terry said, it changed everything about the way she approached gaining experience in her field. A year later, she was accepted into the fifth cohort of the scholars program.

“A full circle moment,” Terry said, describing this experience. “And just the beginning at the same time.”

Terry is working this summer as a multi-disciplinary engineering intern at Boeing Global Services in Long Beach, California. She has been excelling as a member of their Avionics and AP&S Electrical Team doing wire design and installation.

“I am currently working on wire design modification,” she said. “This includes working on wire routing modifications for aircraft avionics such as displays, communications, navigations and etc. In this process I am shadowing Jet streams which are quick turnaround projects that require minimal changes.”

“The girl is gifted,” Walker said. “We are incredibly happy to call her part of the Boeing TMCF scholar program.”

Terry advises young interns who wish to achieve their best work within their internship to “always start with what and why.”

“My advice on accomplishing your best work, as an intern at least, stems from that motto,” she said. “When you begin a project, start with what it is and why we are doing it. From there you can determine the ‘how.’”

“She's just been an outstanding student,” Hart said of Terry. “She’s been the model student for who corporations should look for. Someone who is very poised. Someone who is very career focused. She knows exactly what she wants and she was highly coveted from several companies that wanted to bring her on as an intern. She had a lot of choice of companies to choose from and I was very pleased to hear her select Boeing.”