Kate is a 2022 graduate of Plainfield High School. During her senior year through the principal, she met our HR Manager Tammy Dickison at school. Kate told us that the principal called her down to his office and connected her and Tammy. From there, Kate had a job shadow experience with Banning Engineering and was later offered an internship. In high school, Kate took three years of the Project Lead The Way classes. She also spent time in many math and science courses. Kate enjoys both subjects and initially wanted to work in the medical field. She loved the idea of helping people but later landed on mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering incorporated what she wanted in a career, helping people and problem solving, but also combined her love of math and science. Problem-solving excites Kate; she enjoys creating a solution and seeing it come to life through engineering.
Currently, on a day-to-day basis, Kate helps finish projects for many different project managers but primarily works under Jon Polson and Jeff Henson. She has recently worked on research for a local park, ALTA surveys, record drawings, research on deeds, and as-builts for projects, all while learning CADD and using it for contours and putting points on drawings. So far, her favorite part of interning at Banning is knowing and understanding the overall process of a project. She appreciates understanding the process of one big job and seeing so many aspects come together. She described her experience so far as diverse with many different things to do. She also really enjoys her coworkers and feels like everyone in the office is friendly and includes her in project information and personal conversation.
In her spare time, Kate works at the Plainfield Walmart Neighborhood Market. She’s worked there for over a year and commented that they are short-staffed. To help, she chose to stay on while interning part-time at Banning. Outside of her time at Walmart and her internship, she enjoys spending time with family and friends. She likes being outdoors on the water, kayaking/canoeing, or boating on Lake Wawasee at her grandpa’s lake house. Kate plans to study Mechanical Engineering at IUPUI this coming fall. Thanks for all your work on your projects this summer, Kate! We are excited to see where your degree and future take you.