Catharine “Katie Rose” Scoboria ’18 ME: A Society of Women Engineers Standout

Who: Catharine “Katie Rose” Scoboria ’18 ME

Villanova Experience:

• Research with faculty
• STEM outreach programs, including volunteering for Girls in Mechanical Engineering Day and serving on the student panel for Girls’ Day In
• Serving as president of the Society of Women Engineers

Highlights:

• A highlight of her Villanova experience was a spring break service trip to Costa Rica that she organized for SWE. She and fellow members, along with faculty and students at the University of Costa Rica and ULACIT, the Latin American University of Science and Technology, presented a STEM workshop to 120 high school girls in that country.

Post-Graduation:

Katie Rose is in Melbourne, Fl., where she’s working as a mechanical engineer in Space and Intelligence Systems for Harris Corporation.

“I interned there the summer before my senior year,” she says. “I got to do a 10-week project, on my own, where they gave me a problem, provided me with the resources and said ‘figure this out.’” Appreciating a level of responsibility that she had not found in her previous internships, Katie Rose was thrilled to tackle the research, design and testing required to find a solution to the challenge they set before her. “It was a lot of responsibility, but I loved it.”

Recognition:

Former Department Chair and Professor Amy Fleischer, PhD, said, “Katie was an incredibly talented student who showed exemplary leadership throughout her time at Villanova. Her dedication to engineering outreach benefited hundreds of young women and helped to shape the next generation of engineers.”

In 2018, Katie Rose was presented with the Outstanding Collegiate Member Award from the Society of Women Engineers. The honor is bestowed upon SWE collegiate members—only 10 in the nation—who have made an outstanding contribution to SWE, the engineering community and their campus.