• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2026

• Columbia Barnard College of Columbia University, Astrophysics , ‘27

• Mentor: TBD

• Brookie Mentor: TBD

Raisa Effress is a junior at Barnard College of Columbia University studying Astrophysics and pursuing Columbia’s accelerated M.S. program in Mechanical Engineering. Raisa is passionate about expanding access to space and advancing technologies that enable exploration beyond Earth.

On campus, Raisa serves as the Propulsion–Combustion Devices subteam lead for Columbia Space Initiative’s competitive rocketry team. In this role, she leads the design, analysis, in-house manufacturing, and testing of a hybrid rocket engine with a target apogee of 60,000’, mentoring dozens of members and bringing complex hardware projects to fruition.

Raisa previously worked as a Launch Engineering Intern at SpaceX’s Starbase site, where she supported Starship launch infrastructure and contributed to the rebuild of critical methane and oxygen ground systems. She will return to SpaceX this summer as a Starship Components Engineering Intern in Hawthorne, designing and building flight valves and actuators.

Raisa is interested not only in rockets themselves, but in the mechanical and thermodynamic infrastructure that makes reusable, scalable space access possible. She aspires to design propulsion and energy architectures that operate reliably under extreme conditions, whether in launch environments, in-orbit refueling systems, or future off-world installations.

Looking ahead, Raisa hopes to contribute to in-space systems that enable sustained human presence beyond Earth while supporting initiatives that broaden participation in aerospace. Her technical interests include cryogenic fluid systems and propulsion hardware. In her free time, she enjoys painting, photography, and exploring New York City. As she looks to the stars, Raisa also hopes to continue telling important stories here on Earth through her artwork and passion for social justice.