 I decided to be an engineer, one because I was good at math, and I love science. And two, as I got into engineering, I really enjoyed solving hard problems. Purdue prepared me for my engineering career through really tremendously rigorous coursework and very supportive faculty. Some highlights from Purdue were the super interesting projects that we got to work on. I worked on an independent study with Professor Easter on how to model a solid rocket motor. We got to write a paper on it and went into a student competition, and it was just a great experience. One of the organizations that I was involved in at Purdue was the Society of Women Engineers. It was a great opportunity to see other women actually performing engineering and they could come back and talk to us about the experience. So when I was at Purdue, I did a co-op that allowed me five separate times to go to NASA Johnson Space Center and learn about the different aspects of engineering. By the time I got done, I had a pretty clear direction on what I wanted to do with my degree as well as I got my first job, and it was just a great way to hit the ground running. Advice that I have for future Purdue engineering students is to have patience. There's so much to learn. Enjoy learning it and just keep your head up looking around for all those opportunities because at Purdue, you'll find them. We have tons of challenges in aerospace engineering that we're trying to solve and I need a lot of good people. So if you're interested in math and science, Purdue engineering is what you should do. My first small step was getting a co-op at NASA Johnson Space Center. My second small step was leaving NASA and joining a small business in commercial space. My third small step was joining Blue Origin, a larger commercial space company. The giant leap was honestly coming to Purdue. I distinctly remember the first moment when I said to myself, I can do this. I can be a aerospace engineer. I'm Kristi Akamini. I received my bachelor's in Astronautics and Aeronautics in 1993 and I'm a Purdue engineer.