Brainerd grad Turner Person wins prestigious Astronaut Scholar award

Turner Person, a 2022 Brainerd High School graduate now at North Dakota State University, has earned one of the nation’s most selective undergraduate STEM honors. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation named Person to its 2026 class of Astronaut Scholars, putting the Brainerd native among 79 students chosen from 54 colleges and universities nationwide.

Person is a senior at NDSU in Fargo, where he majors in mechanical engineering and physics and minors in aerospace engineering. His background already includes internships with NASA and private aerospace companies, a resume that fits the scholarship’s emphasis on students with strong research potential in science and engineering.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation said each scholar may receive up to $15,000 in scholarship support. The 2026 class will be recognized at the foundation’s Innovators Symposium & Gala Aug. 13-15 in Houston, Texas, where scholars will also present their research and take part in a fully funded trip that includes mentoring and professional networking with astronauts, alumni and industry leaders.

The foundation traces the program back to 1986, when it awarded its first seven scholarships. Since then, it says it has granted more than $10 million to over 900 students across the country. Astronaut Scholarships are reserved for junior and senior STEM undergraduates and begin with faculty nomination at participating universities, a process that puts the emphasis on classroom performance, faculty confidence and research promise.

For northern Minnesota students, Person’s path shows how a local education can lead to a national science award. Brainerd High School sent him on to NDSU, where he has built a course load that combines mechanical engineering, physics and aerospace engineering with practical experience in the field. That mix of academics and internships is exactly the kind of preparation the Astronaut Scholarship program is designed to reward.

NDSU has had students selected for the program in prior years, underscoring the university’s continued place in the national scholarship pipeline. For Person, the recognition links Brainerd, Fargo and Houston in a single track of academic achievement, professional experience and opportunity that began in Minnesota and now reaches much farther.