Meet the recipient of the 2023 Williams Engineering Scholarship Award recipient, Kate Bennett!
Kate is graduating from the Mechanical Engineering Co-op Program at the University of Alberta this Spring. Kate is on the mechanical team for U of A’s Autonomous Robotic Vehicle Project and was also involved with Future Creators, a non-profit organization that helps inspire and work with high school students who have an interest in engineering. Each year, the Williams Engineering Award is allotted to a female student with good academic standing and demonstrated examples of leadership, community involvement, volunteer activities and extracurricular activities.
Katia Avalos had the pleasure of meeting and sitting down with Kate to discuss her future plans and learn a little more about her.
In addition to her father who is also an engineer, Kate was inspired to be an engineer by an interest in space exploration and Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield. She loves that he had made a music video in space, and was inspired by the realization that one could be passionate about the arts in addition to being committed to becoming an engineer. Engineering is Kate’s way of exploring her curiosities in the world and she enjoys how the mechanical discipline in particular is open-ended, allowing her to explore opportunities and passions along the way that can turn into a specialty.
To Kate, receiving assistance with tuition makes a big difference. Having a part-time job is not easy to manage while being enrolled in an engineering program and extracurricular activities. Having financial help allows her to focus on her studies and make a bigger impact. Looking to the future, Kate hopes to pursue a career in robotics, specifically in Marine Engineering and Robotics. She also would like to learn more about working in the software engineering field and appreciates the versatility offered by a career in engineering.
Congratulations to Kate on her incredible achievements so far, we can’t wait to continue to watch her grow into an incredible force within the engineering community!
