The Hertz Foundation Travel Fund: Eradicating Boundaries to Skilled Progress

Newswise — In a interval of two weeks, Hertz Fellow Grace Ra Kim launched a rocket, pitched a startup, glamped on a working ranch with robots, and expanded her imaginative and prescient of what was doable. But it nearly didn’t occur.

Hertz Fellows know that grad faculty is about way more than simply analysis. Thanks partly to the in depth and numerous Hertz group, alternatives abound for progress and connection—from technical conferences to chance-of-a-lifetime cross-sector collaborations. But what occurs while you’ve recognized a promising alternative, but journey funding is a barrier?  

That’s the query Kim confronted—and what prompted her to use for a Hertz Foundation Travel Fund award. Established in 2025, the journey fund offers monetary assist to enrolled in-school and early-career fellows (fewer than 10 years out of their diploma) in search of to advance their skilled progress by means of convention journey and interdisciplinary engagement. To date, about 40 fellows have acquired journey fund awards. This April, Kim tapped the fund together with different packages to create an epic journey of enrichment and impression.

1. Harvard Undergraduate CubeSat (HUCSat) Launch

Space Launch Complex 40 
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
April 6–11

It’s not on daily basis you get to witness a rocket launch in individual. For Kim, it was a pinch-me second to attend the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Cygnus NG-24 module sure for the International Space Station (ISS) with provides and analysis gear—together with a cube-shaped satellite tv for pc, or CubeSat, designed partly by Kim whereas she was an undergraduate at Harvard. 

The mission started in 2018; Kim joined in 2019 as mission supervisor and was promoted to chief engineer in 2020. But it wasn’t till 2023 that their mission was chosen to the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative, which offers launch alternatives for CubeSats constructed at U.S. academic establishments and non-profits. That identical yr, Kim graduated from Harvard and moved abroad to attend the University of Cambridge as a Marshall Scholarship recipient.

By the time their CubeSat was slated for its April 11, 2026, launch, Kim had moved once more and was now pursuing her doctorate at Stanford. Fortunately, her Harvard teammates saved her within the loop—and invited her to hitch them for the launch marketing campaign and early operations part, a uncommon alternative to interact instantly with a flight mission throughout its most crucial operation window. 

Astronauts on the ISS will launch her crew’s CubeSat into house in late June, the place it can orbit and collect knowledge for as much as two years. “I’m excited to connect my current satellite trajectory modeling work with real mission data, to help validate my assumptions and identify new directions for applied research,” Kim says. 

Dubbed “HUCSat” by her Harvard University crew, their CubeSat measures 10 by 10 by 20 centimeters, making it a 2U CubeSat. It carries a payload that can take a look at how nitinol, a “shape-memory alloy” that modifications form when heated, performs as a low-cost, low-power technique for photo voltaic panel actuation and acts as a possible various to conventional motorized pointing methods. 

“It felt like a full-circle moment, seeing the fruition of a project that began during my undergraduate studies,” Kim says. “It gave me a firsthand understanding of the challenges that satellite operators face every day. This was exactly the kind of operational perspective I needed to build better algorithms in my current work for spacecraft collision avoidance and traffic coordination. And it was really helpful to expand my network within the small satellite and mission operations community.”

The journey fund helped Kim with the cross-country flights, additional lodging days wanted when the launch was delayed, and entry to viewing areas at NASA. And it turned the catalyst for a lot extra.

2. National Labs Entrepreneurship Academy

University of California Livermore Collaboration Center
Livermore, CA
April 14-17

After launching her satellite tv for pc, Kim traveled again to the Bay Area to launch a enterprise—or a minimum of, discover ways to pitch one. At the National Labs Entrepreneurship Academy (NLEA) in Livermore, Kim joined 42 working scientists and engineers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Sandia National Laboratories for 4 days studying to assume like founders. Kim was one in every of 4 in-school Hertz Fellows to attend, together with Rod Bayliss, Jeff Brown, and Drew Langford.

Kim acknowledges that at Stanford, with its location in and alumni connections to Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship is already high of thoughts. But on the intensive NLEA program, she gained sensible expertise geared particularly for researchers—serving to them assess the viability of their concepts, “de-risk” their strategy by means of small experiments, and translate their technical experience into industrial success.

For her observe pitch on the NLEA, Kim utilized her present analysis in house operations and was capable of reference her current expertise at Cape Canaveral. Her pitch deck, Decision Intelligence for Satellite Operations, earned optimistic suggestions and an surprising discovery: You don’t need to win over everybody within the room. “You only need one yes,” she says. “That was an empowering realization for me.” She now has a promising thought she will construct on. 

Kim acknowledges that with out Hertz Foundation assist, the NLEA might have been cost-prohibitive for her as a pupil. “In fact, I may not have even had it on my radar,” she says. “Through their partnership with LLNL, the Hertz Foundation provided access and funding that made all the difference. It’s continued to open doors for me.”

New alternatives for conferences and internships proceed to return her means, because of the connections she made on the NLEA.

3. Hertz West Coast Retreat

Rancho San Gregorio
Half Moon Bay, CA
April 17-19

At Rancho San Gregorio, Kim’s life slowed right down to a tractor’s tempo—if just for a weekend. There, about two dozen in-school and early-career Hertz Fellows gathered for the annual West Coast Retreat. 

Owned by founder, builder, and investor Hertz Fellow Daniel Theobald , this 127-acre working analysis farm touts rainbow-colored hen eggs, regenerative agriculture, and robots. With a various crew that features farmers and engineers, Theobald is working to advance sustainable agriculture by means of modern know-how. “They have a chicken coop on wheels,” says Kim, nodding to the farm’s observe of rotational grazing, as a means to enhance soil well being, pasture productiveness, animal efficiency, and long-term farm resilience. 

Housed in yurts and surrounded by livestock, the Fellows loved summer-camp-inspired actions from pottery and music to horseback using and even a mini-engineering problem utilizing tiny excavators to scoop macaroni and beans. It was a uncommon and welcome alternative to calm down, play, and assume otherwise. 

“At the ranch, I remembered how much I loved hands-on work like this. Having been in a global ecology program in high school, I was excited when Daniel spontaneously offered any fellows who wanted the chance to experiment a few acres of land for research,” says Kim. She notes broader pursuits in ecological methods, together with how autonomous robotic manipulators may ultimately assist agricultural duties equivalent to monitoring and harvesting, with potential functions for sustaining human exercise in house environments.

Kim is happy to discover and deepen the connections she made on her travels, study from others, and comply with her concepts wherever they may lead. “In just two weeks, I’ve found multiple new trajectories for my research and career. Before, I’d just assumed I’d go into industry after finishing my PhD,” she says. “But now, thanks to the experience I’ve gained and the connections I’ve made, I feel like anything’s possible.”

Kim wrapped up her travels in time to attend the 2026 Student and Alumni Awards Reception again on the Stanford campus. There, she acquired the Community Impact Award for demonstrating “a sincere commitment to community through involvement, leadership, and extraordinary Stanford spirit.”

“Opportunities can come from casual conversations and unexpected places,” she says of her expertise with the Hertz Community. “And it’s up to us to take advantage of those opportunities when they arise.” 

Learn extra in regards to the Hertz Foundation Travel Fund and request an software here beginning July 1. 

About the Hertz Foundation

The Hertz Foundation is the nation’s preeminent nonprofit group dedicated to advancing American scientific and technological management. For greater than 60 years, it has stood as an unwavering pillar of impartial assist by means of the famend Hertz Fellowship, cultivating a multidisciplinary community of innovators whose work has positively impacted thousands and thousands of lives. Learn extra at hertzfoundation.org.