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Kristina Dong

  • Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2020

  • University of Washington, Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering, ‘21

  • Host Institution: Blue Origin

  • Mentor: Rob Meyerson

Kristina is currently a junior at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, majoring in Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering with a minor in Applied Mathematics. Her interest in space travel was sparked in high school and grew immensely as she volunteered as a counselor's apprentice for two summers at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. There, she worked with other counselors to teach young summer campers about the past, present, and future of air and space travel.

Kristina has been involved in the University of Washington's student-led rocket team, also known as the Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion (SARP), since her freshman year. The Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion competes each year at the Spaceport America Cup in New Mexico. On SARP, Kristina has previously worked on fuel development and testing for the team's hybrid fuel grain. Kristina is currently a technical project lead on the propulsion team in SARP and is working to develop a propellant filling system for the team's liquid bi-propellant rocket. Kristina is also an undergraduate research assistant in the Ram Accelerator Lab at the University of Washington and has worked there over the summer under the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium's Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

Kristina is the secretary for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at the University of Washington. She enjoys connecting with her fellow SWE members and hopes to be involved in SWE in the industry. Kristina was previously a co-director for SWEHacks19. SWEHacks is an annual hackathon that was developed to provide students a place to learn and create hands-on technical projects for social good. Kristina is also a SWE mentor to help others find their path in engineering and find different opportunities at the University of Washington.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Kristina will be interning at Blue Origin in Kent, WA.