Member spotlight – JD Carlson

By Mattheas Jamieson and Isaac Joffe

JD Carlson is currently a member of the business team at AlbertaSat. He was first introduced to the group through some high school friends that participated in via engineering roles. Having a keen interest in space exploration and satellites, he made the life changing decision to join and has not looked back since.

He started from humble beginnings, like all AlbertaSat members, joining the Administrative Team and completing an admin task. With this admin task under his belt, he had proved his worth and was ready to face any challenge AlbertaSat could throw at him. He continued on his journey by first joining the Business Team. His main duties as part of the Business Team include, but are not limited to, completing general business tasks for the club as they come up, planning and organizing club events, and meeting with other student groups. His crowning achievement so far is working on a crowdfunding campaign this past summer along with fellow business team member Emily Nguyen. He and his team raised just under $25,000 through private individuals and business donations to support the AlbertaSat group. JD has not wasted any time during his tenure with AlbertaSat and has quickly risen through the ranks of the organization, most recently being elected as the treasurer of the club. With this new role comes added responsibilities, such as drafting a budget for the next mission, a momentous project which he is enthusiastic about starting.

Outside of the club, JD lives a compelling life. He is a third-year accounting student at the prestigious University of Alberta. He credits his aunt and uncle with helping him make this career choice. His aunt and uncle are CPA’s that both have given him guidance in the immediate years preceding university and during his studies, and he regards them as being highly influential members of his life. JD is an avid enthusiast of sports, with hockey and soccer being his favorite sports. He grew up playing both sports and enjoys watching them too. JD’s captivating life doesn’t just end there. He also leads a life of controversy, being a staunch supporter of pineapples belonging on pizza, stating that he believes they are a match made in heaven. This is evidenced by the fact that when asked if he believed that pineapples belong on pizza, he answered “very much so”. A powerful statement that JD left with us as our interview concluded was that the best piece of advice he had ever received was “classes in university are not necessarily meant to be fun, you’re here to learn, fun is for after your degree”. This is a statement that I’m sure many university students can relate to. And lastly, to wrap things up, we asked JD what the most fun and unique fact about him was. To put it bluntly, he stated that he was a “first cousin, thrice removed to Grant MacEwan” of Grant MacEwan University. A truly unique fact that few can match. This has been the interview of the one and only supercalifragilisticexpialidocious JD Carlson.