9.25.23

Talent Times Three

Roy Moye III ‘15 is making waves on the front lines of three quite different yet intertwined professional fields: aerospace engineering, human resources specializing in talent acquisition and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) recruitment and advocacy — and music.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, Moye worked as a structural design engineer at Spirit AeroSystems for six years before pivoting in 2021 to talent acquisition. He now leads Spirit’s College Internship Program, which he participated in twice as a Wichita State student. Under his leadership, the program was named to the U.S. Top 100 Internship Program list in both 2022 and 2023.

“I’m deeply proud of the fact that in the past two years of the program, the student population has been the most diverse in Spirit’s history,” Moye says. “This summer, out of 140 interns, we had 38% women interns and 43% interns of color. The power of diversity is core to who I am as a person and seeing that diversity emerge in a program I love so much is incredible!”

In 2019, Moye, who’s a talented singer with credits in R&B, gospel and children’s music — as well as a noted National Anthem performer — founded STEMusic LLC. “I started this company to teach children of color about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), all through high energy concerts and keynotes,” Moye says. “I’m Black, Puerto Rican and Mexican and I rarely saw engineers or other STEM professionals who looked like me in my office environment and industry. The mission of STEMusic is to inspire the next generation of multicultural STEM professionals through music.”

Also in 2019, Moye was a top 20 finalist on the nationally televised BET gospel singing competition “Sunday Best.” Most recently, he and his fellow 1 Tribe Collective musical group members received a Grammy nomination for their 2022 children’s music album “All One Tribe.”

Inspired by Wichita State’s tagline “Thinkers, Doers, Movers, Shockers” when he was a freshman, Moye says his learning experiences at WSU have been the common denominator in his various professional successes. “In regards to being a thinker,” he explains, “I learned powerful critical thinking and problem-solving skills as an aerospace engineering major. I saw that by doing after thinking you really do start to make progress toward the success you want.”

On campus, Moye proved to be a mover as president of the WSU chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, and he claimed Shocker status many times over in ways as diverse as working at the university’s Child Development Center and for the College of Education in STEM outreach to Wichita Public School students, to winning multiple campus-based talent shows, including Hippodrome and Shockers Got Talent, to being elected by WSU’s undergraduate student body as Homecoming King his senior year.

“Wichita State,” he says, “was the perfect foundation for what I’m doing today.”

For his enterprising strides forward in three fields of work, Roy Moye III is the 2023 Young Alum Award honoree. “This award reminds me that all the long hours, the flights for tour dates, the concerts in elementary schools, the recruiting of college students for the Spirit AeroSystems intern program, being on the front lines of DEI work and the balancing of careers is all worth it,” he says.

“This award,” he adds, “lets me know that I’m making a difference — and that knowledge is power.”

The 2023 Alumni Award recipients will each be recognized at the first annual Heritage Gala on Tuesday, November 7. Learn more about this event and buy your tickets to celebrate the changemakers at Wichita State.