By Cassie Mann

There were too many smiles to count at Northrop Grumman’s Baltimore, Maryland, site on this Wednesday in February 2024. The space was buzzing with company engineers and students from Northrop Grumman’s High School Improvement Program (HIP) who had teamed up during the annual Engineers Week (E-Week) to build custom bikes — with larger, flat pedals, special seats, stability measures and other adaptations — for local children with disabilities, many of whom may never have had a bike before.

For Morgan Freeman, an additive manufacturing engineer, the day held special meaning. Watching the room, she reflected on her journey from standing in those HIP students’ shoes several years ago, to now being a full-time Northrop Grumman engineer. 

Science Of Choices

In 2012, Morgan was a junior at Baltimore’s Western High School, the oldest public all-girls high school in the United States. She was exploring her engineering passions through a variety of advanced placement and honors classes when her guidance counselor first introduced her to HIP, which would become a critical part of Morgan’s high school experience.

“She knew I was interested in engineering and encouraged me to apply,” Morgan said. “I was most interested in biomedical engineering at the time, and I saw the opportunities the program presented and wanted to be a part of it.”

HIP was created to inspire and prepare high school students for STEM career pathways by offering access to Northrop Grumman’s engineers and hands-on exposure to technology. Throughout her junior and senior year, Morgan met with her mentors, worked on special engineering projects, attended training sessions on career development and got to tour different Northrop Grumman facilities and shop floors.

Morgan also worked on a biomedical engineering summer project, building a bedding system for a man with cerebral palsy. Morgan met with him and his parents to understand the requirements, worked with Northrop Grumman engineers on the fabrication of the bed, then delivered it to his house.

“Helping others was the whole reason I wanted to get into engineering, and participating in this project solidified that this was the right path,” said Morgan.

Full Circle Experiences

Upon graduating high school, Morgan attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering, supported by a Northrop Grumman scholarship for HIP alums. She stayed close to her mentors and HIP network, attending Northrop Grumman events on campus. A career fair before graduation made such a positive impression on Morgan, she knew was meant to return to Northrop Grumman.

“I met with an employee who was such a charismatic leader. His passion for what Northrop Grumman does was so inspiring, and his passion for his team and their work to make things better really excited me,” said Morgan, who graduated in 2020 and joined the company’s Pathways Program – a rotational assignment program for young engineers.

In her first Pathways rotation, Morgan worked for the leader she’d met at the career fair on the mechanical fabrication and design team as a subtractive manufacturing engineer. Later, she moved onto a new rotation as an operations project manager working for one of her old HIP mentors — a true full circle moment. Now, Morgan is a project engineer in Baltimore, supporting modules for the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), an electronic attack system that provides game- changing capabilities to protect ships by detecting and defeating in-bound threats.

She also gives back to the HIP program, serving as a HIP coordinator. She works with HIP program leaders to recruit mentors and to plan, coordinate and facilitate events such as the Baltimore team’s E-Week Bike Build.

“I believe in giving back and community service, and I am passionate about mentorship because I have always had a mentor,” said Morgan. “It brings me great joy to pour into this next generation and help to develop them into leaders, just like someone did for me.”