Ella Reinhart, BASIS San Antonio Shavano Class of 2025 has always been passionate about engineering. During her time at BASIS Shavano, she worked on a variety of projects from robotics competitions to an internship with NASA. Today, Ella is focused on learning and growing as an engineer. You can find her leading the next generation of engineers at Longhorn Racing, a collective of over 300 students from the University of Texas who build competitive race cars.
We met with Ella to learn more about what it takes to be a part of one of the largest networks of college engineers.
How did you start at Longhorn Racing?
I started as a freshman on the combustion team and within that team there’s many hierarchies such as an aerodynamics team, electronics, dynamics, and many more. We all have our own unique roles based on what you’re interested in. I was also elected to be the Vice President of the entire organization which is super cool because it makes me the youngest VP in the history of the organization and the first time that we’ve had both a female president and VP. I’m super excited about this and I know our “Women in LHR Events” are about to be so much fun!
What are your goals as you enter this leadership role?
Our recruitment process is very intense, for example there were over 180 applicants for my role when I entered as a freshman. Now that I’m on the other side of the application process and helping sort through candidates, I understand that the process is like this to ensure that we give opportunities to students who love this work. With that, one of my goals is to promote women and students of color to join LHR because those are communities that are often underrepresented in the engineering community.
How Does BASIS Impact You Today?
BASIS had a huge part in my experiences, and I think the main thing that allowed me to have my current opportunities was the senior project where I was a spacecraft mechanical engineering intern in Silicon Valley, California. My first week I was working on a really big spacecraft project and now there’s a satellite in space with my name on it which is just so cool, and I was still in high school!
Having an experience like this is so important because when I sit in some of my classes as a freshman, they would cover material that I learned at BASIS or literally worked on myself as an intern.
