Sophia Cicerchia had never seen a rocket launch before. When Artemis II lifted off, she stood at Kennedy Space Center with her colleagues from L3Harris Technologies, watching an engine she had spent the past year supporting behind the scenes leave the ground. Artemis II is the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years.
"It was just a really proud moment," she said. "For this to be my first, and something I had contributed to, was amazing."
 |
| Online MBA student Sophia Cicerchia, right after the launch of Artemis II. |
Cicerchia is a finance professional on the RL10 engine program at L3Harris, the propulsion system at the heart of the Artemis missions. Her work is not the kind that makes it onto mission patches: managing program costs, tracking forecasts, producing the financial reports that tell program managers whether they are on track or drifting. On a mission with this many contractors, partners, and moving pieces, a financial blind spot does not stay small for long.
She is also, in the middle of all of it, earning her M.B.A.
Cicerchia graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in business economics and joined L3Harris shortly after. When she started thinking about graduate school, she did not want to wait. She was already doing meaningful work, already building momentum, and she wanted to keep pushing while she had it. The structure of Miami Herbert's Online M.B.A. made it possible to stay fully committed to her job without putting her education on hold.
When she got her acceptance, the screen filled with confetti. She still remembers it, and it made the whole thing feel real.
It turned out her manager, Michael Shurslep, was a University of Miami alumnus, a happy coincidence that turned into something more meaningful. Cicerchia credits him as the biggest influence on her training and growth at L3Harris, the person she points to when asked how she got where she is today. The shared alma mater only deepened that connection, giving them a common language and something they're both proud to claim.
Balancing aerospace finance with graduate coursework is not easy, and Cicerchia does not pretend otherwise. What she found was a program that met her where she was. A class called Leading Teams, taught by lecturer Ebony Gallagher, changed how she thinks about what it actually takes to manage people: building accountability, supporting development, and creating the conditions for a team to do its best work. Cicerchia is not a manager yet, but she is already showing up differently.
"It's made me a better team member now," she said.
That shift is intentional. Long term, Cicerchia wants to move into program management. Overseeing complex programs from start to finish—not just finances, but the full picture: strategy, operations, and leadership. The Online M.B.A. is her way of building that foundation, learning from a curriculum she finds herself applying in real time, not shelving for later.
Artemis II has given all of that a different kind of weight. This is not a mission that exists in isolation. It is the first step in a sustained return to the Moon, the groundwork for eventually sending people to Mars. Being part of the beginning of that, even in a supporting role, has made her think longer about what she wants her career to add up to. Not just growth for its own sake, but work that lasts beyond the moment it is finished.
For anyone hesitating about going back to school while working a demanding job, Cicerchia speaks from recent experience. She was uncertain going in, unsure whether she was taking on more than she could manage. What came out the other side was something she did not fully expect: a stronger sense of confidence in how she thinks, communicates, and approaches complex decisions. She credits the program for allowing her the flexibility to stay fully present at work, and professors like Gallagher, whose teaching she was able to apply the very next day.
"I'm genuinely proud of myself for taking that step," she said. "Having that foundation in business and leadership is something that continues to add value, no matter where your career takes you. You don't need everything to slow down to bet on yourself."
