• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2026

• Rice University, Mechanical Engineering, ‘27

• Mentor: TBD

• Brookie Mentor: TBD

Pepper is a third-year mechanical engineering student at Rice University in Houston, Texas, pursuing a minor in sociology. Originally from Fort Myers, Florida, she developed a love for aviation at a young age. After attending Aviation Challenge in Huntsville, Alabama, on scholarship, she was inspired to pursue aerospace and aviation more seriously. She went on to earn both her Private Pilot License and Instrument Flight Rating before her sophomore year of college, solidifying her commitment to the field.

Since moving to Houston, Rice has become her home away from home. Pepper serves as Chief Engineer of the Rice Eclipse Rocketry Team, the university’s largest project-based engineering organization. In this role, she oversees the Avionics, Aerodynamics, and Propulsion divisions, provides technical guidance, and fosters engineering growth across the team. She is also the Co-President of the Rice University American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Section, where she mentors underclassmen and coordinates outreach, social, and professional development events.

In the Preston Innovation Laboratory, Pepper conducts undergraduate research on oscillating heat pipes, an emerging passive thermal management technology. Her work focuses on leveraging saturation-pressure-driven flow to create compliant and flexible heat pipes suitable for high-power, low-volume applications, contributing to advancements in compact thermal solutions.

Outside of academics, Pepper loves exploring new places through hiking, camping, or discovering a new favorite coffee shop as a self-proclaimed foodie and caffeine enthusiast. A retired theatre kid at heart, she still enjoys singing and acting when she can, and in quieter moments, she can be found reading or listening to true crime and epidemiology podcasts.

In summer 2025, Pepper interned at Relativity Space in Long Beach, California, as an Avionics Mechanical Integration Intern, where she supported the development of secondary structures for the Terran R launch vehicle. In summer 2026, she is thrilled to return to Long Beach to intern with Vast Space as an Environmental Testing Manufacturing Intern!

Pepper is deeply honored to join the Brooke Owens Fellowship and looks forward to contributing to and learning from this extraordinary community.