Kate graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Materials Science Engineering. She was part of the Vagelos Integrated Program for Energy Research, a dual-degree program emphasizing undergraduate research related to renewable energy and as a continuation of passion pursuits she began at Derryfield, Kate also managed to add a minor in Hispanic Studies.
Kate remembers her Derryfield Independent Senior Project as a great opportunity to get a better understanding of the semiconducting industry. Her internship at a company focused on traditional silicon-based solar cell devices, served as a great first encounter with materials science. Kate is continuing her post graduate studies as a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University working towards a degree in Materials Science and Engineering, working with perovskite materials, which are widely studied for use as high-efficiency solar cells.
Reflecting on her time at Derryfield, Kate commented, “I miss the cross-country and track seasons at DS. We had great teams, and everyone was always supportive of each other. Experiences at DS have pushed me to keep running over the years. I ran the San Francisco half marathon for the first time in the summer of 2023, which was a challenging but fun experience.”
She recalled holiday dinners with her host family where there was “always delicious food and good vibes. “Those are the moments that I felt I was at home even though I was thousands of miles away from the rest of my family.’
Kate credits the critical thinking and writing skills she developed in Derryfield classrooms as useful in her coursework and research experiences over the years. She is grateful that Derryfield allowed her to explore her interests in the humanities through the diverse range of history, philosophy, and literature courses. She continued this passion in college by taking a philosophy and history courses in her areas of interest and claims that her time at Derryfiel also pushed her to pursue a minor in Spanish and become involved in Penn’s literary translation magazine DoubleSpeak for the four undergraduate years at Penn.