Keller Wins ASCE Scholarship

by Diane S. Kukich

May 14, 2007

Katie Keller (BCE2008) has been selected to receive the Samuel Fletcher Tapman ASCE Student Scholarship. The $2500 award will help defray tuition costs for her senior year at UD.

According to ASCE, scholarship recipients are selected based on their educational plan, academic performance and standing, potential for development, leadership capacity, ASCE activities, and financial need.

In addition to membership in UD's student chapter of ASCE, Keller is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, and Tau Beta Pi. Her ASCE activities include participating on the steel bridge team, which placed second in the regional competition, and on the fundraising committee. "Although fundraising is a time-consuming task," Keller says, "it provides an opportunity to interact in a business-like manner, a skill that as engineers will be used in professional practice everyday."

In her essay for the competition, Keller wrote that she first thought about becoming a civil engineer when she was in third grade and wanted to know what would keep her new house from blowing away in a strong wind. She views engineering as a career that will enable her to help people while also providing her with tangible evidence of her efforts.

To help fine-tune her interest in a specific aspect of civil engineering, Keller has taken internships every summer since her freshman year. The first was in the construction area with Whiting Turner; the second, with Whitney, Bailey, Cox and Magnani, enabled her to experience building design. This summer, she will delve into the transportation sector with McCormick Taylor.

Keller plans to go to grad school after completing her bachelor's degree next year. She is considering schools in Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, and she plans to focus on structural design. "Post-graduation," she says, "I would like to work for a medium-size consulting engineering firm. Additionally, I want to give back to the professional organizations that have assisted me in numerous ways over the past few years."

In addition to her classroom studies at UD and her summer internships, Keller studied fluid mechanics in a Study Abroad program in Australia over UD's 2007 Winter Session. "This was a great way to learn a civil engineering topic as another culture views it," she says.

"Katie is not only one of the brightest students in our department," says Chair Michael Chajes, "she is also incredibly involved in extracurricular activities and has displayed great leadership capabilities."