Erin Potrzebowski...

Hey all! I hope that my biography gives you a pretty good picture of who I am and how I'm involved at NASA JSC. Keep reading to find out more about me!

About Me

I grew up in Westville, IN, which is about an hour outside of Chicago and ten minutes south of Lake Michigan. I'm about to start my 5th year at Purdue University. My major is mechanical engineering and I'm all set to graduate in May 2009. I've always enjoyed math, so engineering seemed like a perfect fit for me. To keep from burning out on all that math and science, I also have minors in political science and history. I like to keep myself pretty busy, so I’m pretty involved on campus. I’m active in Pi Tau Sigma, Purdue Mechanical Engineering Ambassadors, Freshmen Peer Mentors, and Habitat for Humanity. In my free time, I enjoy hanging out with friends, musicals, taking pictures, and of course, supporting Purdue athletics, especially football. Boiler Up!

My Co-op Beginnings

One of the reasons I chose to attend Purdue was its strong connections with NASA. I've dreamed about working for NASA since I was a little kid and Purdue is one of NASA's strongest supporters. Purdue typically has quite a few co-ops at NASA, so for me, entering the co-op program at Purdue was barely even a choice. Purdue's co-op program is really well established and thus, very structured. I ranked NASA JSC as my first choice for a co-op and a few days later, had my interview. A few weeks later, I received my job offer and now here I am, living in Houston, Texas!

Inside the Shuttle Sim	T-38 at Ellington Field

Working at NASA

For my very first tour at JSC, in Spring 2006, I worked in the Crew and Thermal Division (EC3) of the Engineering Directorate. My group was Intravehicular Activity/Flight Crew Equipment (IVA/FCE), which basically means that we develop, certify, and maintain much of the equipment the crew uses when they're IVA on both shuttle and station. In my group, we worked at both project engineers and project managers. Basically, that means that I spent about half my time in the lab or working with hardware and the other half of my time was spent in meetings and working on paperwork. My projects my first tour ranged from choosing and certifying a new watchband for the crew to working on a reconfiguration project for a foam applicator that fixes leaks in shuttle and station. Finally, I learned how to prepare hardware for flight. I had hardware that I inspected and approved to fly aboard the Soyuz and also had hardware on a shuttle flight. It's pretty amazing that I worked on things that are actually flying.

During my second tour at JSC, in Fall 2006, I moved to the Mission Operations Directorate as a co-op in the Mechanical, Maintenance, Arm, and Crew Systems (MMACS) group. The MMACS group is a shuttle flight control group. MMACS provides operational support for many of the mechanical systems of Space Shuttle. Those systems include the shuttle landing gear, the payload bay doors, auxiliary power units, and the docking system. During my time in MMACS, I learned A LOT about flight operations. I was able to spend quite a bit of time in the Mission Control Center starting my training to become a flight controller, in the Mech 2 backroom flight control position.

For my third tour at JSC, I wanted to get more mission operations experience and also wanted to learn more about the International Space Station. In the Summer 2007 semester, I completed a co-op tour in the Environmental Control Group (ECG). ECG provides training on the Environmental Controls and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) for both ECLSS flight controllers and crew. The ECG systems include total pressure management and composition for the ISS, the oxygen and nitrogen systems on the US Segment of the ISS, and Emergency training. During my tour, I certified to teach a class and was able to explore the training world!

My fourth and final tour at JSC was in the Spring 2008 semester. For this tour, I stuck with the ISS side of mission operations and moved to the ECLSS flight control group. The systems were the same that I had studied the previous tour, which definitely gave me an advantage in the ECLSS group. During my tour in ECLSS, I was able to experience ISS flight control. Flight control on the Station is very different than flight control on the Shuttle. I was also able to start training for the ECLSS back room position.

Wedge Antilles human pyramid build!	On console

Social Life

As most people probably are, I was really nervous about leaving my friends back at school. I had never moved to a city a thousand miles away without knowing anyone! I even brought all this stuff to do during the free time I was sure that I was going to have. I couldn't have been more mistaken. The co-ops are fantastic people and you're sure to meet a great group of friends! The co-ops are such a diverse group of people that I've gotten to do a million things. There's something going on every night; I've never even had time to think about being bored. I'm involved in co-op softball and volleyball. From broomball, hiking, and trips to the beach (in January!) to salsa dancing, skydiving, and random movie nights, I always have something to do. I went to help rebuild New Orleans with some of the other co-ops! We throw parties, go out together, cook for each other, and above all, just have fun!

In conclusion

Co-oping has been one of the best experiences of my life! It's been well worth the constant moving and a later graduation date. Now that my co-op career is done, I’m hoping to come back to JSC full time! If you have any questions, feel free to email me at erin@purdue.edu. I hope that you'll think about the co-op experience!