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4月 12, 2022

Women @ Wentworth Student Profile: Catherine Roden

Catherine Roden


Every year, we donate to various university scholarship programs to support students to unlock pathways to education that may otherwise be inaccessible. One of these university programs includes the Women @ Wentworth Endowed Scholarship Fund at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

Catherine Roden, a junior at Wentworth studying Construction Management, is a current student who is benefitting from our participation during the 2021-2022 academic school year. In the summer of 2021, Catherine participated in her Co-Op as an Assistant Project Manager at W.T. Rich Company.

Catherine is a very hard-working individual. She graduated from her high school fifth in her class with a GPA of 96.7%. At her first year at Wentworth, she finished her first year as an architecture major with a GPA of 3.84, receiving an A in studio despite planning on changing majors.

Catherine comes from a family of three children. At the age of 14 she got her first job in order to save for college and to help support her family.

“If it were not for my parents pushing me to get a job, I would not have been able to afford college as I am paying on my own. Both of my brothers were unable to attend college because of our struggles, making me the only one in the family to do so. Receiving scholarships not only impacts my life, but my family’s as well. My family is my biggest supporter, they always push me to achieve my goals and dreams, attending college being one of them. If not for the various generous scholarships I received in high school, I would not have been able to afford tuition first year.”

Catherine hopes to graduate from Wentworth with a Bachelor of Science in construction management with a concentration in facilities management in December 2023. She hopes to complete her final co-op term in April 2023. She has so far completed two semesters in Wentworth’s architecture program. Before graduating, Catherine hopes to become LEED certified so that she can focus her career on green building after graduation.

Looking ahead, she hopes to obtain a full-time job as a project manager from one of the three paid internships she will partake in her time at Wentworth. Eventually, she hopes to open her own design-build company in the suburbs of Boston working closely with architecture firms.

Wentworth Capstone Project“I am so grateful for the scholarships given by donors like [Teradyne]. If it weren’t for these donations, I would not be where I am today. When first looking into where I wanted to attend college, my choices were immediately limited to local community colleges in my rural hometown because of financial constraints. I have been primarily financially independent since age 16 through balancing being a full-time student while working part or full-time. Because of [Teradyne’s support], I can focus my attention on my education, and better yet attend my dream college. Thank you again for your generous financial support. I hope to be able to give back the same way one day.”

Teradyne is proud to help students like Catherine pursue their passions in STEM.

At a Women at Teradyne event held at Wentworth, Catherine spoke of her experience at the school:

“Here at Wentworth, I am a member of the construction management club and the Sigma Lambda Chi International Construction Honor Society. Being a student here has given me countless opportunities to advance both personally and professionally.

Last summer I participated in my first optional co-op with W.T. Rich Company. I worked as an assistant project manager on three elementary school projects, helping with closeout documents, design review and development, trade contractor pre-qualifications, and more. I had the opportunity of working on one of the sites three days a week and watching the construction progress. This was an amazing experience as I was able to see what I have been learning in the classroom in full-scale.

This coming summer I will be working in the building information modeling department at Cranshaw Construction. I am so grateful to have been offered this position and would not have been able to do it without the opportunities provided by Wentworth. Being able to have this real-world experience prior to graduation allows students like me to not only gain a better understanding of where they want to be within the industry, but also helps cultivate future connections.

I think it goes without saying that the construction industry is primarily male-dominated, so I am typically one of the few females. Having been around construction from a young age, I didn’t realize how stigmatized being a woman in the field still is. I hope to serve as a future role model for women and inspire them to pursue their career of choice without limitations. It’s time for women to break the barrier.”