A new fellowship program Attempts to draw Black Pupils into Area

Expand / Patti Grace Smith has been a significant figure from the commercial space market. (charge: Patti Grace Smith Fellowship)

Alvin Drew recalls becoming entranced with planes a month or two before his next birthday. In the autumn of 1967, he moved into the airport at Baltimore to watch his dad off to a company trip. In these simpler days, he remembers walking out to observe the takeoff in the designated place on the runway.

Four-year-olds are into everything large and loud, and visiting a plane come hurrying down the runway, popping a wheelie, then getting off was about the coolest thing that he could envision. His mother and grandma, both teachers, noted his curiosity and purchased him model planes. This cultivated a budding fascination with flying and after becoming an astronaut.

“They watched a smoldering passion of fascination in my” Drew explained. “They went outside and threw up to gas in the fire as you can.”