{"677252":{"#nid":"677252","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Want to Become a Space Policy Expert? Liberal Arts Offers a Good Start, Nunn School Graduate Tells Students ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen it comes to space, policy is where it\u2019s at, Ivan Allen College alum Kaitlyn Johnson, International Affairs 2014, told a room full of aspiring aerospace sector employees in the first of a new series of presentations on careers in space policy.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s policy for everything. Every science and technology career field or specialization has someone in D.C. working on the political side to either get you funding, get you support on the Hill, or pass regulations to allow innovative companies to exist and pursue things,\u201d said Johnson, deputy director of the Strategic Initiatives Group at the U.S. Space Force.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJohnson was on campus Sept. 19 to speak to postdoctoral researcher Thomas Gonz\u00e1lez Roberts\u2019 space policy class and to headline a career talk open to students from across campus.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt can be difficult to figure out how to make a career out of the intersection between engineering and policy, but events like these are a reminder that there are so many opportunities out there and no one\u2019s career path is exactly the same,\u201d said Althea Noonan, a fourth-year student in the School of Aerospace Engineering.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENoonan wants to use her engineering background to propel her into a space policy position. But, as Johnson noted, a STEM major isn\u2019t necessary to break into the field.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJohnson herself is proof of that. She studied international affairs at Georgia Tech, planning to enter the Foreign Service.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, she discovered the skills she gained as an Ivan Allen College student had well prepared her for a policy career.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELiberal arts students at Georgia Tech gain exposure to technology and have the opportunity to work with STEM scholars, giving them the tools to understand technical concepts and collaborate with both experts and non-experts.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt taught me how to communicate between different groups of people, to understand complex engineering problems and to communicate them to policymakers,\u201d Johnson said of her Nunn School education.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChloe Satterfield is a fourth-year student in the School of Public Policy (SPP) hoping to attend law school for administrative and public interest law.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSPP equips students to think critically about complex policy problems,\u201d Satterfield said. \u201cIt was very helpful to hear how Kaitlyn, a liberal arts graduate, was able to learn how to \u2018speak the language\u2019 of engineers in her field. I\u2019m grateful that Georgia Tech has created a great environment to learn that skill.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGonzalez said that more space policy career talks are planned, and he encouraged students to engage with the growing space policy community at Georgia Tech, including considering applying to the GTDC Pathways to Policy program.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I\u2019d like to think that one of our responsibilities as emerging leaders in space policy is to teach people what space policy is and where it happens,\u201d Gonzalez said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGonzalez is part of a growing cadre of space policy experts in the Ivan Allen College. His Nunn School colleague Mariel Borowitz is widely regarded as one of the preeminent experts on space policy issues. Scholars Larry Rubin and Lincoln Hines have studied global space programs.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, research scientist Ute Fischer is helping NASA figure out how best to communicate with astronauts during long-duration exploration missions and Regents\u2019 Professor Lisa Yaszek, a science fiction expert, was tapped to join the Georgia Tech \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/feature\/space-research\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESpace Research Initiative\u003C\/a\u003E (SRI) steering committee.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELiberal arts students at Georgia Tech gain exposure to technology and have the opportunity to work with STEM scholars, giving them the tools to understand technical concepts and collaborate with both experts and non-experts, U.S. Space Force official Kaitlyn Johnson, IA 2024, told students.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Liberal arts students at Georgia Tech gain exposure to technology and have the opportunity to work with STEM scholars, giving them the tools to understand technical concepts and collaborate with both experts and non-experts, U.S. Space Force official Kait"}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2024-10-02 18:03:30","changed_gmt":"2024-10-02 18:09:10","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-10-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-10-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"675198":{"id":"675198","type":"image","title":"Nunn School Graduate Talks Space Policy Jobs","body":"\u003Cp\u003EThomas Gonzalez Roberts, left, and Kaitlyn Johnson, IA 2014, discuss careers in space policy.\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1727892436","gmt_created":"2024-10-02 18:07:16","changed":"1727892856","gmt_changed":"2024-10-02 18:14:16","alt":"A crowd of students photographed from behind in a room listen to a woman speaking while a man looks on.","file":{"fid":"258799","name":"PXL_20240919_150542965.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/02\/PXL_20240919_150542965.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/02\/PXL_20240919_150542965.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1072292,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/10\/02\/PXL_20240919_150542965.jpg?itok=on4IexWs"}}},"media_ids":["675198"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1285","name":"Sam Nunn School of International Affairs"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMichael Pearson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}