High Above the Sky

As a child, Makenna Kuzyk dreamt of walking among the stars, whether on Broadway or as an astronaut. “When I was little, my parents would tell me that anything is possible if you just work very hard. In my family, we were always taught that the sky isn't the limit,” smiles the 2024 Laureate of the Order of the White Rose, a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering at University of Alberta.

This bright, fire-eyed 23-year-old is on the verge of fulfilling one of her dreams, as well as breaking a glass ceiling: she's the first woman - and second civilian - to ever be accepted for a Master's degree in flight test engineering at the International Test Pilots School. Her goal? To conduct research on the impacts of microgravity.

Far from being satisfied with her five-star academic record, Makenna Kuzyk has also set out on another mission: to make others shine. “By studying at this school, I hope to help raise the profile of women in aerospace to encourage them to apply,” maintains the student, who has just won the Brooke Owens International Scholarship, dedicated to women working in the space industry.

The awareness of women's underrepresentation in various fields is not new to Makenna Kuzyk. As a teenager, she had no fears of being THE girl playing basketball among a roster of boys, or persevering to achieve a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a largely male-dominated discipline. The young sportswoman quickly realized that she could make a positive impact by showing up and encouraging others.

During her university years, being the only woman in her aerodynamics class convinced her to create Mission SpaceWalker, a student club focused on the advancement of space research... entirely dedicated to women. “I wanted the people to know that their dreams to go to space can be more than dreams. They can make them real,” says the woman who is now involved as a mentor for Zenith Pathways, a scholarship to provide students with internship experience in the Canadian aerospace industry that she benefited from two years ago.

For this born leader, Mission SpaceWalker is in a way the launch pad which, thanks to her team's many technological achievements, has helped propel her team into space. It even made its way to the United Nations, where she gave a presentation on the impact of female leadership and helped brainstorm ways to attract more women - just 11% of them are astronauts - to this largely male environment.