Local student artists recognized during CCAC Space Day awards presentation
Published March 25, 2026
Parkway West CTC student artists were honored during a CCAC Space Day Awards presentation. Pictured (left to right) Dr. Justin Starr, CCAC Endowed Professor of Advanced Technologies; Parkway West CTC graduate, Joey Clark; Betsy Zelina, Parkway CTC Graphics Design and Production instructor; Parkway West CTC student Reagan Zatezalo.
CCAC recently honored the two student artists from Parkway West Career & Technology Center (CTC) who designed the NASA mission patches that traveled to space and back as part of a competition sponsored by the CCAC Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) team.
Joey Clark, a 2025 Graphic Arts & Production Technology student from Parkway West CTC, and Reagan Zatezalo, currently a third-year Graphic Arts & Production Technology student at Parkway West CTC designed the winning art in 2023 for the two mission patches that traveled to the International Space Station with the CCAC Mission 18 student experiment on November 4, 2024.
During an awards ceremony at the Center for Education, Innovation & Training on CCAC’s main campus, the students were presented with the original patches that returned to Earth from outer space on December 17, 2024. Betsy Zelina, Graphic Arts and Production Instructor at Parkway West CTC, accepted a replica of the patches on behalf of the school.
The winning CCAC SSEP Mission 18 team experiment was delivered to the International Space Station in November 2024 and traveled back with NASA astronauts a month later. The experiment aimed to test how microgravity affects how a fungus—Penicillium chrysogenum—breaks down a common plastic, polyester-polyurethane.
CCAC has been selected each year since 2022 to participate in the international SSEP program sponsored by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.