RS&H-Drew Charter School Partnership Paves the Way into the AEC Industry
According to The Institute of Higher Ed, only 13% of students feel fully prepared to choose their path after high school, and even fewer of those high school graduates have taken steps to realize that path.
Kate DuVal is different.
The 2024 Atlanta high school graduate not only knows she wants to be a structural engineer, but she has also already had a fellowship and two internships to learn more about the field she aspires to be in. Kate is a published author, a longtime volunteer at a local art studio and artist herself – modeling her action painting style after Jackson Pollack.
“From the first day she entered my class in 9th grade, Kate was always an engaged, hardworking, and collaborative student,” said BethAnn White, an engineering teacher and one of Kate’s mentors at Charles R. Drew Charter School. “She was an excellent problem solver.”
Kate graduated from Drew Charter School in May and will begin her first semester at Georgia Tech this fall, studying civil engineering. She will continue her internship at RS&H even as she transitions from high school senior to college freshman. Her experience at the national engineering, architecture and design firm has only reinforced her desire to learn and work more.
“This experience has been really fun – I love it so much,” Kate said. “I love coming into the office. I love that everyone here is so sweet and fun, and I absolutely love my team.”
A Strong STEAM Community Partner
A STEAM-certified K-12 school, Drew Charter is a key component of the cradle-to-college/career continuum within Atlanta’s holistic East Lake neighborhood revitalization. It was founded in 2000 as Atlanta’s first charter school to provide an excellent education to children in The Villages of East Lake.
In the Drew Engineering Program, students complete three years of coursework and then collaborate with White to seek out and secure an internship in an area of their interest in the engineering and technology fields. While the number of opportunities is growing, high school internships are still rather rare. A 2020 study by American Student Assistance showed that only 2% of high school students had completed internships.
Last year 16 of the 18 total students at Drew who completed the pathway sought and found placements in industry or academia for their senior year in the program. Of those students, 15 are now pursuing degrees in engineering fields.
“Kate is a wonderful example of how much students can benefit from our partners like RS&H, as she learned a lot, was given the opportunity to explore many disciplines of civil engineering and now has a leg up on her peers as she enters Georgia Tech to pursue a career as a structural engineer,” White said. “She loved her experience at RS&H and looks forward to continuing her work with them.”
For RS&H, the feeling is mutual.
“She’s a rock star,” said RS&H Senior Planning Leader Steve Cote, who introduced Kate to RS&H. “Kate is just an amazing person – she blows us away.”
An Early Start to Success
Kate took her first engineering class at Drew in first grade. She grew up in the Girl Scouts but competed with her brother’s Boy Scouts troop with a pinewood derby car she built, winning the competition in back-to-back years. She considers the derby car her first engineering project.
Her most difficult engineering project to date was her junior year project, in which she and a classmate built a custom pinball machine from scratch. They made the machine and all of its components—the wood, vinyl, plunger, bumpers, targets and circuits, and even the Greek mythology theme with Medusa. The year prior, in tenth grade, Kate wrote and published a 101-page novel, The Kingdom of Enasia.
She became interested in structural engineering after shadowing engineers during her freshman year. Her time at RS&H, working alongside Associate Vice President Ryan Vasile and other structural engineers has only deepened her interest in the field.
“That was the first time I was like, ‘Wow, this is what I want to do!’” she said.
RS&H already has an internship program for STEAM high school students. Expanding the program to the Atlanta office and beyond made perfect sense.
“We wanted to explore the different parts of our company with Kate to show her what is all out there,” Cote said. “We especially wanted to focus on her passion, which is structural, but also expose her to roadway design, some planning work and other disciplines.”
A Bright Future
The RS&H Atlanta office will continue its STEAM internship program and partnership with Drew Charter School as well, starting this fall with a former classmate of Kate’s.
Kate will be in the office, too, but this time as a paid college intern. Like the rest of the RS&H office, she will be ready to lend a helping hand.
“Everybody here at RS&H will help walk you through things,” Kate said. “They are so helpful and you can tell they really care about teaching you.”
Cote is excited to continue the partnership as well, in which he sees many benefits.
“Personally, I think it helps our company, but it also helps us as associates, as Kate and other young people have so many great ideas,” Cote said. “We must keep up and push ourselves to do better. [The program] also helps us build partnerships with the communities that we serve.
“[Students] can help us as much as we can help them, so I see it as a win-win-win for all of us.”