Alumni Update: Cate moved to San Francisco where she works for a firm that specializes in sustainable and often small-scale residential work. She also works for a non-profit that flips homes in an effort to create more affordable housing.

Hometown: Bakersfield, VT

Off-Campus Experience

Student Intern, Mosaic Associates Architects: After my third year, I spent the summer working at Mosaic in downtown Troy. Focusing primarily on educational buildings, I got to work in 3D modeling and rendering (which is my favorite), as well as 3D printing and finish selection.

Student Intern, Berger Hannafin Architecture: After my fourth year, I spent my summer in Carson City, NV, working for BHA. A much smaller firm than Mosaic, I got to experience the ins and outs of actually running a firm, as well as spending a ton of time on construction sites, in client meetings, and compiling construction documents.

On-Campus Experience

SoA Woodshop Monitor: Assist students in using shop tools including laser cutters, CNC mill, 3D printers, and traditional woodworking materials.

Dean's Student Advisory Council: I have been my DSA class representative since freshman year, which means that once a semester I meet with the Dean of the SoA and discuss student body concerns.

Admissions Ambassador: Give tours to prospective students and serve as a panelist at events.

Additional Club Activities I have dabbled in a number of RPI clubs, including The Players, where I worked in theater tech, the Student Government Communications Committee, where we worked to make sure that the student body knew about what decisions their government was making, and the Pep Band, where I played the trombone.

Favorite Class

Creativity vs. Responsibility - This is a vertical studio (n the SoA, you take 10 studios, one per semester). Some of these are core, meaning they exist in the set curriculum, but a handful are verticals, meaning that you get to select from a number of options provided in that specific semester. In the Fall of my fourth year, I selected Creativty vs. Responsibility, which was a studio centered on designing architecture in a world where the building industry is a massive contributer of waste - hence the course title. Architects are not at liberty to design whatever we want. Through this course, I focused on the vacant building population in Troy, asking the question Why are we building from scratch when so many viable shells already exist? I got to spend a ton of time in Troy speaking with government officials, business owners, and members of the community, and at the end I held a public forum where the community came together to speak about the issues. I didn't know that I would get to do things like that in architecture school, and I completely loved it. It has been really helpful in my now fifth year, when I am working on structuring my thesis.