The Georgetown University Space Initiative (GUSI) may be one small step for Georgetown, but it is one giant leap for space education.

GUSI is Georgetown’s first space-related professional development organization, and it serves as a platform for students interested in all topics related to outer space. The club’s weekly Wednesday evening meetings consist of presentations and conversations with professionals from the space industry who provide insight on how to break into the industry and where it is headed. 

GUSI is not only a forum for professional networking but a place for student innovation. The organization is composed of four different teams that pursue projects related to space policy, science and technology, investment and commercial space companies. 

Brady Stoffregen (SFS ’26), a member of the science and technology team, said his team is working on several developments with corporations. 

“One of the upcoming projects is with an IBM satellite, where we will be given the opportunity to code some of the satellite’s functions while it is up in space,” Stoffregen said in an interview with The Hoya. “I am also a part of a new research team that is doing some agricultural research, testing plant life in space.”

GUSI also runs Georgetown’s Space Advocacy Committee (GSAC) which encourages and plans the implementation of space-based curriculums and initiatives on campus. Stoffregen said this committee exposes students to new academic and career paths they never considered before.

“I think it is largely involvement in GUSI that pushed me towards a STIA major as opposed to coming in doing IPOL,” Stoffregen said. “And now I am taking an intro to comp sci class so that I can participate in the satellite program.”

While GUSI is working to improve space education at Georgetown through a student outlet, there are still institutional concerns. GUSI co-presidents Andres Permuy (CAS ’24) and Owen Chbani (SFS ’25) said they are concerned about Georgetown’s lack of academic resources related to space.

“We would like to have more classes added,” Andres said. “We would like to see an expansion of space related classes in STEM. However, that requires a specialized faculty.” 

As a student studying Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA), Chbani said that this goal would be possible through more course options.

“The first step … within STIA is to add to those sub-concentrations. Like science, technology, security, sustainable development. There could just be a space concentration added on to that,” Chbani said.

Associate history professor Dagomar Degroot, whose classes focus on climate crises and space exploration, serves as a professional advisor to GUSI. Degroot said GUSI is only just the beginning of the necessary implementation of space education at Georgetown.

“GUSI was very much on the development of new space and space commercialization. It has kind of kept astronomy alive to some extent at Georgetown for decades, but in a sense we are still doing so little at Georgetown,” Degroot told The Hoya in an interview. “We would love to hire more people and have more courses to reflect the level of interest and the importance of the issue going forward.”

Degroot also said the great amount of student engagement with Georgetown’s few space-related events was promising, such as an environment symposium hosted along with NASA. Degroot said this was an example of extensive student interest and desire for more space-related programming on campus.

Within the next few months, GUSI has a lot planned. Not only will they be hosting more space industry professionals at meetings, but GUSI will participate in various networking and educational conferences around the Washington, D.C. area and the United States. 

Notably, GUSI is preparing to assist in hosting SEDS international SpaceVision conference in November 2023, a student-based networking and educational conference for space lovers.

“It is a really huge opportunity for students because it is right here in our backyard,” Permuy said in an interview with The Hoya. “SpaceVision is an excellent event to network and for students to get their start in the space industry.”

Degroot said he strongly encourages students to complement their education with space-related programming.

“If you think about where our species is headed, I think expansion into space is pretty much inevitable,” Degroot said. “It is very fundamental that students have an understanding of what the picture looks like right now, and where it might be headed.”