For the past 15 years, Kari Bosley has worked with NASA on the James Webb Telescope project, serving as the lead mission planner for the telescope that has been orbiting the sun a million miles from Earth, sending back astounding deep-space images that are rewriting what is known about the origin of the universe.
Now, Bosley will graduate this month from University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), becoming the first in her family to earn a degree.
“Obviously my path to this role has not been traditional,” she said. “I started without a degree because I kind of did things a little backwards.”
Growing up near Tacoma, Washington, in the 1980s, she took an early interest in aviation, hoping to become a pilot. That hope was grounded when she learned that she had to have perfect vision; she also was a little bit afraid of heights. Her father, a crane operator in the Navy shipyard, told her she could become an aviation mechanic instead, but she focused her attention on becoming an air traffic controller. Then a high school counselor told her that was a high-stress job only men could do.
Feeling adrift Bosley married at age 20, had three sons and became a stay-at-home mom. But she still longed for a career of her own. After a divorce, she struck out on her own “to create a better version of herself” while still raising her sons.
She found herself with “an incredible opportunity” to work at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, starting as a lead administrative assistant, supporting the flight operations manager. The telescope was still in development, so she took on as many projects as she could to help him.
“He invited me to join his team, even though he knew I didn't have a degree, as a mission planner,” she said. “You don’t need an engineering degree,’ he said. ‘You already know how a lot of these processes work, and I'm willing to train you. I see the potential.’
“I am forever grateful that he did. He took that chance on me, and that's how I knew I needed to get my degree so that I can rise to this challenge,” Bosley added.
After five years as an administrator, she now has been on the flight operations team for nearly a decade. She chose UMGC to pursue a degree in information systems management because the coursework was entirely online, which fit well with her work and home responsibilities. Although it took her seven and a half years to complete her degree, she said she never had a course she didn’t like.
“It's been a long journey,” she said. “I knew it would be challenging with the rotating shifts of my schedule during the launch and commissioning of the spacecraft and balancing that work-life load. But slow and steady wins the race.”
Bosley said she chose a degree in information systems management because it aligned well with what she does at NASA.
“I'm always working on a system, and I have to understand it inside and out. This degree will open doors for me in management,” she said, adding that it also gives her a better footing at her current job.
“I was always embarrassed when people asked, ‘What's your degree?’ I don't have one, and [then] they asked, ‘How did you get this job?’” she said. “I used to say it was just luck. But I learned over the years to respond that somebody saw my potential, and they knew that I'd be a good choice for their team.”
Bosley works with the James Webb Telescope flight operations team members to coordinate and maintain the science observation schedule and daily routine activities and get them sent to the spacecraft. That undertaking makes her part of history, and that is important to her.
“We can look deeper into the universe and farther back in time than ever before,” she said. “It's hard for me sometimes to wrap my brain around it.”
Bosley recognizes that few people get that kind of opportunity she has. When younger people ask for her advice, she tells them there’s no right path to success.
“Sometimes you have to start over and sometimes you have to build your own road,” she said. “Always take chances, work hard and keep learning. That’s really the key, you have to keep learning. I'm 53 and finally getting my degree.”
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