NASA Brooke Owens Fellow, Space Grant alum awarded Dean’s Medal for approach to science education
Lindsey Tober is the Technological Leadership program’s fall 2025 Dean’s Medalist.
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series of profiles of notable fall 2025 graduates.
Lindsey Tober was looking for a way to combine her creative side with her passion for science when she found the technological leadership degree at Arizona State University and ultimately used it to pursue her love of filmmaking.
Now she’s one step closer to moving her undergraduate work into a full-time career as she graduates this December with a degree in technological leadership with a minor in film and media production and as the program’s fall 2025 Dean’s Medalist.
“Lindsey has been selected as a Dean's Medalist in recognition of her drive and success while a student at ASU. Lindsey is pursuing a career path that blends film and media with space and science, creating her own pathways into this industry,” said Cassandra Threadgill, an academic advising manager at the Interplanetary Initiative.
Tober combined the skills learned from both her major and her minor to excel in her internships throughout college. She has previously worked as a NASA Space Grant Intern to create videos explaining the importance of space technology to society and Earth, and served as an ASU Space Student Ambassador.
This past summer, she was the sole Sun Devil in the Brooke Owens Fellow 2025 class, where she then interned at NASA Goddard to produce short-form content for the James Webb Space Telescope social media accounts, among other tasks.
“Not only can I major in technological leadership, but I could also minor in things like film and media production, and I can integrate that to work in fields such as film production for space-related topics,” Tober said. “I really want to dive into the area of showcasing the universe, curiosity and inspiration to the world, and I'm so excited that ASU has given me that opportunity to be able to combine these two very different things into something that I am incredibly passionate about and really couldn't have done anywhere else.”
Learn more about Tober and her time at ASU.
Question: What did you like the most about studying technological leadership?
Answer: Technological leadership has been the best thing that's happened to me. There's not a program like it anywhere else. It's not really at any other school, so ASU is one of the true places that can really let me explore all the different things that I want to. I've taken classes in things like the psychology of positive leadership or making a mock spacecraft. What other school lets you do that? But at the same time, I can explore my creative side in things like digital arts. I can't imagine another school for me because they don't have this major.
Q: Why did you choose ASU?
A: I was blown away by ASU’s space program. The partnerships with NASA that they have, the opportunity for students to get involved, the high technology they have. I stepped into ISTB4 and was sold.
Q: What skills have you gained from this degree program?
A: The biggest skill that I have gained is hands-on experience. No other school has offered the amount of opportunity that ASU has. I've worked on things like building spacecraft to working on film sets.
Q: In what ways has a liberal arts and sciences degree prepared you for the future?
A: Having a liberal arts and sciences degree has really prepared me to talk with anyone and everyone about what they do. So not only do I have the skills in technological leadership and film, but I also have skills in math, English and psychology. I'm really well-rounded in a way that I wasn't before.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?
A: My advice for incoming students would be to explore. I came in as an astrophysics major, not realizing that my true passion lay within filmmaking for space-related things. ASU is really this one place that gives you the opportunity to go explore everything and anything. You really have time, don't feel pressured. You have time to explore because your whole future depends on it.
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