Students engage in presentation by Ms. Kristen Adonie ’17.
By Deyi Meng ’26
Choate’s i.d. Lab Alumni Series provides students who are interested in robotics with a better understanding of the various professional opportunities in the field after high school. On November 14, the School hosted alumna Ms. Kristen Andonie ’17 to present at the event after its brief hiatus due to Covid-19.
Ms. Andonie spoke about working in the current tech space, shared insights into how to balance a rigorous academic schedule with a social life, and discussed the nuances of working on the forefront of robotics projects and navigating the stressful workplace environments of big tech companies in the Boston area.
To help students enhance their understanding of what current work in the field looks like, Ms. Andonie also walked through her daily experiences at Lockheed Martin and Walmart Robotics. Student and faculty attendees listened attentively as she explained the Agile and Scrum frameworks and key methodologies in today’s software engineering field.
“It was fun to see photos of things that really are at the cutting edge of where robotics and design are, allowing businesses to do things that they haven’t been able to do before,” i.d. Lab Director Dr. Travis Feldman said.
Ms. Andonie’s talent for and interest in STEM was evident during her years of schooling. At Choate, she excelled as a physics tutor and creator in the i.d. Lab. While pursuing a degree in Robotics Engineering and Computer Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, she served as Vice Chair of the Rho Beta Epsilon Robotics Engineering Honor Society. Ms. Andonie was tenured at Lockheed Martin, an aerospace company, and currently works at Walmart Advanced Systems and Robotics.
The event was organized by the Choate Makers Club and Dr. Feldman, who hoped it would help current students better understand how their classwork is reflected in real-world situations.
“You’re going to math classes, you’re going to science classes, you’re going to art classes,” he said. “The ideas of what you can do with those classes once you get out in the world are sometimes energized by the stories that people have of what they’ve done.”
By welcoming Choate alumni back to campus, students can appreciate their work and achievements and hear their stories firsthand.
“There’s a diverse way of recognizing and honoring what alumni have achieved, and this is one small way to do that,” Dr. Feldman said.
The event culminated in a sprint design challenge, in which students simulated creating a new product under a time crunch, working through the processes of ideation, drafting, review, and revision.
Leanna Robie ’25 appreciated the chance to ask questions to Ms. Andonie and learn about what working in the field is really like: “The biggest takeaway was how many opportunities you have, how many job opportunities you get, and the ability that you could go from big networks, big companies, or big organizations to smaller startups,” she said.
Robie’s experience was in line with what the organizers of the 2023 i.d. Lab Alumni Series had hoped to achieve with the event.
“There are some really special ways that the interests of students, the hobbies, the projects that students are working on, find their own way of connecting to what these alumni bring and what stories they tell,” Dr. Feldman shared.
