Students, staff and faculty had the chance to ask Koch questions about studying in Ghana, working in Antarctica, and of course — her venture to the far side of the moon.

"It was like seeing a secret garden," Koch said. "It was like this place that you knew had to be there, but it was this proof of concept that the Moon is its own place. You know, we only see this one side as if it's a picture painted in the night sky, but it actually is this orbital body.”

Koch was one of four crew members on the Artemis II mission earlier this year. She also grew up just a few hours away in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

At the event, Koch discussed her career trajectory, including a decision to leave an engineering position at NASA to work at the South Pole for a year.

"So even though that wasn't maybe on the conventional list of what you do to become an astronaut, it was on my list," Koch said.

That stood out to Caitlyn Lewis, a senior at N.C. A&T studying mechanical engineering and aerospace.

"I think that's really inspirational that you don't really have to stay on track and that you can still get the same results while not doing the same path as everybody else," Lewis said.

She said Koch changed the way she thinks about her own path.