A full-time internship at NASA. Studying for a degree from Kent State University. Add two small children to the mix. This is daily life for Ukrainian native Kateryna Karelina. And she loves it.
Karelina, a senior visual communication design major in the College of Communication and Information at Kent State, is an illustration and communications intern at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland in its Gateway's Power and Propulsion Element.
“I am working on the Gateway project, which is the first space station around the moon,” Karelina told Kent State Today. “My job as a designer is to create certain digital and physical public outreach materials and infographics, and [to] make sure the presentations that they're going to use when talking about this project are up to their branding guidelines and standards.”
Karelina said she loves the trust NASA has in her work. Her typical schedule consists of receiving tasks to work on for the week and at the end of the week the team will check in on her progress and give feedback. She has creative freedom in her approach and in her design choices.
Aside from her position as an illustration and communications intern, Karelina is also the co-chair of the Promoting Agency Cross-Center Connections (PAXC) at NASA. The main goal of this organization, which is led by interns, is to encourage each other to communicate and engage and to promote networking opportunities. She is also the communications outreach chair at the commuter and off-campus student organization.
Karelina interns at NASA full-time, and people are curious about it. She is frequently asked if she is an astronaut. She also said that people often assume she is an engineer or scientist.
“I always have to let them know that what I do is not even close to being an astronaut,” Karelina said. “I did not know before college that designers could work there, and that changed everything for me.”
Karelina first came to the United States in 2014, working to save money to be able to go to college. At the age of 28, she enrolled at Kent State. Karelina is now 30 and is a mother of a toddler and a baby. Between the internship and being a parent, she had to take a semester off classes.
“I was a bit worried about work and family at the beginning because of the life balance being a parent to two little babies,” Karelina said. “You know, dropping them off at daycare at 6:00 a.m., sprinting into my NASA job, doing as much as I can here. And then leaving, picking them up...then, another job starts, which is parenting, and that is 24/7.”
Karelina specifically noted the help she received from Student Accessibility Services as a parent in college. She also recognizes two School of Visual Design faculty members, Hadi Rahmati, assistant professor, and Sanda Katila, associate professor, who helped her along the way and who have been pivotal in her success.
“The first time I heard about NASA offering a design internship was through Aimee Crane, a Kent State graduate,” Karelina said. “She came to Taylor Hall to give a speech because she's a designer at NASA, and she introduced us fresh designers to this idea. Back then, I fell in love with this idea. I thought by the end of this degree, that's where I'm going to work.”
Dedication and commitment were the key elements for her to guarantee her position at the government agency. Karelina knew from the beginning that her goal was to be at NASA, and she used her time to ensure she would get the position she desired.
“I had an internship prior to this just to learn what it is like to work in a professional corporate setting because I wanted to come here prepared and knowing what to do,” Karelina said. “I always worked because I was trying to get as much knowledge as I could from different sources. I think I had a strong portfolio that interested them.”
Learn more about the visual communication design program at Kent State.