The Solastra Fellowship
Meet Our Fellows
The Solastra Fellowship is dedicated to cultivating a strong and dynamic community of Latin American student leaders in aerospace and aviation. Guided by our mantra to “Soar, Lead, and Inspire,” we are proud to introduce our inaugural Class of 2026.
These fellows embody the resilience and vision that define Solastra’s mission. Each has demonstrated a commitment to leadership, technical achievement, and community impact. These are all qualities that will shape the future of the aerospace and aviation industry.
As part of the fellowship experience, fellows receive dedicated mentorship, access to a network of professionals, and a summer internship within the aerospace sector. In addition, they will engage in professional development programs and participate in a community service initiatives designed to strengthen both their technical and leadership capabilities.
We are honored to support this exceptional cohort as they take the next step in their journeys and contribute meaningfully to the future of aerospace.
Evan Figueroa
Computer Engineering Major with a Minor in Game Development at Chapman University
Evan Figueroa is a 4th Year Computer Engineering Student at Chapman University and proud Solastra Fellow. He's passionate about robotics, embedded systems, and building hands-on engineering projects. Outside of engineering, he enjoys baseball, weightlifting, and getting involved in community service initiatives.
He was first introduced to aerospace through an aerospace engineering course in high school, which sparked his curiosity about flight and space systems. As he pursued Computer Engineering, he realized embedded systems and hardware design play a critical role in spacecraft and avionics, motivating him to apply his technical background toward the aerospace field.
Paola Ramirez
Computer Science and Engineering Major at Los Angeles City College
Paola is a first-genation Guatemalan-American student from LA. She's passionate about open science practices and fostering STEM awareness with a strong interest in advancing diversity and innovation in technology. Her academic and professional goals are driven by her curiosity about space technology where she hopes to contribute to projects that expand humanity’s understanding of our planet and beyond.
She was inspired to go into aerospace because growing up, her mom would take Paola and her siblings to the California Science Center. It was there that her interest in science and technology began. In 2024, she was a mentee for the Aerospace Mentorship Program at Caltech where she researched biohybrid jellyfish. This experience opened her mind to how various fields of engineering can be used in practical applications in aerospace and space technology inspiring her to pursue robotics and embedded systems engineering.
Danniela Santibanez Garcia
Mechanical Engineering Major at University of California, San Diego
Danniela, or Danny, was born and raised in Mexico and moved to the U.S. at 16. Her curiosity and love for aerospace led her to mechanical engineering when she started in community college. Outside of school, she enjoys hiking, crocheting, and reading. She loves staying busy, learning new things, and she's grateful to be part of this first fellowship class, hoping to inspire others along the way.
Danny's interest in aerospace grew from loving to build, design, and understand how things work. Growing up, she wanted to be an astronaut and was always fascinated by things that fly with purpose, whether in the sky or in space. Once she began engineering coursework in community college, she knew she wanted to apply mechanical design to aerospace systems that solve real problems and push innovation forward.
Aidan Mateo Guerra
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Major at University of California, Davis
Aidan Guerra’s professional experience spans bioastronautics, manufacturing, and propulsion projects across NASA, Blue Origin, and UC Davis. He is currently an undergraduate researcher in the Bioastronautics and eXploration Systems Laboratory. Outside of academics, he is an amateur astrophotographer with 8 years of experience, dedicating his time to publishing photometric measurements of comets.
He was inspired to go into aerospace because in 2018, he was outside stargazing in his front yard with his family and a 12-inch Dobsonian telescope. Aidan was observing the planet Saturn through his eyepiece when he saw a bright object crossing the sky, which turned out to be a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket performing a stage separation. Since then, his passion expanded from simply observing the universe to also pursuing aerospace engineering to build the technologies that make deep-space exploration possible and improve life on Earth.
