UAH 2024 grad Thomas Teper receives CBYX internship from State Department, German Bundestag

Thomas Teper, a 2024 graduate of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), will spend much of the next year in Germany as a recipient of a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX) internship. He received his Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering with a minor in computer science on May 6. UAH is a part of The University of Alabama System.

Teper is the third UAH student to receive a CBYX internship. This exchange program is funded by the U.S. Department of State and the German Bundestag. Each year, 75 American and 75 German young professionals participate in the cultural immersion program. Candidates come from all career fields and a broad range of backgrounds, according to the CBYX website.

Attending UAH was a natural step for Teper, a Bob Jones High School graduate who grew up around rockets and the U.S. space program.

“I went to Space Camp, and I’ve always loved things that fly and things that go to space,” he says. “UAH offers the opportunity not just to learn the academic side of things but also to connect to industry – NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center, Redstone Arsenal. At UAH, you have access as a student to all of these different types of opportunities. Looking back on it after four years, I made the right choice.”

One of his favorite research projects at UAH was the Charger Rocket Works Team.

“It’s our senior design group that competes in the Student Launch Initiative for NASA. We had six flight tests this year. I’ve learned so much through that experience.”

Now Teper is eager to take on a new challenge with CBYX and gain fresh professional and personal perspectives.

“You need to be able to think about problems and ideas in different ways,” he says. “If you’re in the same place your whole life, you can get used to one way of thinking.”

CBYX is divided into three phases: intensive language learning in German, college courses at a German university, and a five-to-six-month internship at a German company.

Teper is especially intrigued by the second part of the CBYX program.

“This would allow me to take aerospace or mechanical engineering courses in not only a different language but also in a different method of doing things or different approach to things. It’ll give me a completely new perspective on my major and what I want to do in the future.”

He also expects to learn more about himself.

“I want to know that I can handle new challenges and different things that are outside of my comfort zone. I think there’ll be a lot of challenging moments while I’m there that will allow me to grow as a person through this.”