NASA Intern Took Career from Car Engines to Cockpits
Certain career changes involve small changes. But for an NASA engineering trainee, the jump was much larger – moving under the hood of a car to help air taxis take the sky.
Saré Culbertson spent more than a decade in the automotive industry and worked as a service manager in animated automotive repair workshops. Today, she supports the Air Mobility Pathfinders project in NASA as an engineer of flight operations at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, through the NASA Pathways program.
Saré Culbertson
NASA trainee
“NASA helped me see opportunities that I didn’t even know existing,” she said. “I realized that being good in something is not enough – you also have to be passionate about it.”
With a solid base in mechanical engineering – obtaining a baccalaureate from California State University, Long Beach, Antelope Valley Engineering Program – she obtained her Magna Cum Laude diploma and delivered the discourse at the start of her class. Culbertson also obtained two associate diplomas, one in engineering and one in fine arts.
Before switching to aeronautics, she worked with car dealerships and independent car repair facilities during her college. It also directed quality control efforts to help a manufacturer comply with quality international standards.
“I never thought that terrestrial survey would have anything to do with theft. But it is a key element to support our research with GPS and the verification of navigation,” said Culbertson. “The GPS measures the exact positions by analyzing how long the signals take to travel from satellites to soil receptors.
A musician since his childhood, Culbertson also played in 21 states, playing everything, from snorkel to the trumpet, and even appeared on HBO’s “Silicon Valley” with his snorkel. She played in ska, punk and reggae groups and now performs the baritone in the south of the Sierra Pops orchestra.
The NASA Pathways internship, she said, has changed everything. Culbertson has recently been accepted in the master’s program of engineering in flight control at the National Test Pilot School, where she will specialize in fixed wings and flight qualities.
His advice for anyone starts?
“Listen more than you are talking,” she said. “Do not focus if on the next promotion you forget to be excellent in the work you have now.”
During his internship, Culbertson makes significant contributions to research on NASA urban air mobility. It collects location data for test landing sites as part of the first assessment of an experimental commercial electric take -off plane, an important step in the development of new generation aviation technologies. From the repair of cars to help air taxis to become a reality, Sréné Culbertson is proof that when passion encounters persistence, the sky is not the limit – this is only the beginning.
