Living the Mission: Katherine Berger '25

From the moment she entered Notre Dame Prep as a STEAM Gateway Award winner, Katherine Berger ’25 knew she had found a place that could nurture her passions and push her toward her dreams. Now, as a recent graduate who earned a General STEAM Certificate, as well as two Pathway Certificates in Computer Science and Engineering, Katherine is headed to the University of Maryland Honors College as a Banneker/Key Scholar, UMD’s most prestigious scholarship.

Selected from a competitive pool of around 400 semifinalists, Katherine is one of approximately 150 students offered the full scholarship after an intensive interview process. Her acceptance to the Banneker/Key program was the culmination of a high school career defined by excellence in academics, a deep curiosity for engineering, and a generous spirit of service. “I have wanted to be an engineer since elementary school because I love math and science, construction, and understanding how things work,” said Katherine. She took full advantage of NDP's cutting-edge programs and the Jane Kroh Satterfield Innovation Wing. Her favorite classes, calculus and physics, helped confirm her interest in a math- and physics-heavy field.

Her academic prowess is matched by her passion for hands-on problem solving and efficiency. A four-year member and two-year president of the Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) Club, Katherine wired and programmed Arduino-based fire suppression systems and led her team to victory as a sophomore. She participated in the ACE (Architecture, Construction, and Engineering) program, where she developed 3D models of a proposed community center on the Baltimore Peninsula and took a paid internship with Limbach to learn about construction management.

Additional internships included the UMBC Observatory and Becton Dickinson, where she worked with a small group to design and build a device that allows someone with only one arm to get dressed. She also had the unique opportunities to shadow Whiting-Turner employees for a week, work on punch lists for Johns Hopkins University’s new Life Sciences Building, and help with the documentation for NDP’s water main project last summer.

To me, living the mission means chasing my dreams without fearing failure.

Katherine also believes in using her talents to give back. From guiding adaptive mountain bikers to teaching English weekly over Zoom to a Ukrainian student, she lives out NDP’s mission of social justice through service. “There are students who are exceptionally gifted, others who are born leaders, and still others who when faced with challenges provide innovative solutions. Katherine is one of those rare individuals who does it all,” said Mary Agnes Sheridan, Director of STEAM. “It has been a joy to witness her intellectual curiosity and innovative problem solving in all her pursuits,” added Janine Field ’97, Engineering Teacher. “Her creativity, technical knowledge, and collaborative mindset truly reflect NDP’s mission to empower young women to transform the world.”

Next year, Katherine will join the Design Cultures & Creativity (DCC) program and participate in the Women in Engineering (WIE) program at UMD where she looks forward to meeting a dedicated community of female engineers in such a male-dominated field. Whether she’s designing efficient systems or coding her next gameplaying bot, Katherine will undoubtedly continue Living the Mission beyond NDP while inspiring others to do the same.

“To me, living the mission means chasing my dreams without fearing failure. I do everything in my power to work toward my goals and then judge myself based on effort instead of results.”