Brooklyn Pater found the women’s volleyball team at Hopkins by chance — well, not exactly. It was more like the program found her, in the form of an email from a coach when she was in her freshman year of high school in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Four years later, she arrived in Baltimore, ready to further both her academic and athletic career at the Blue Jay nest — and that she did. She is currently an integral part of our women’s volleyball team, sporting the #21 jersey and helping the team to an impressive 15–2 record in the Centennial Conference. Pater currently leads the team in number of blocks (68) and has recently won her second Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week award this season.
However, her achievements go far beyond the court. Pater will soon graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and will start working in the medical technology sector at Stryker Corporation based in Michigan.
She is also part of InterVarsity (working on their social media production) as well as the Johns Hopkins Chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. In an interview with The News-Letter, Pater spoke about her journey to college volleyball, her professional trajectory and the influences that her upbringing in South Dakota had on her outlook on life.
“It’s kind of funny, because I haven’t met another South Dakotan at Hopkins yet,” she revealed. “I love my hometown, because that’s where all my family is. I definitely feel like it’s a place that very much values that family and so it’s very normal for people to stay close to home. While my family is very important to me, they also pushed me to challenge myself.”
It was this encouragement that motivated her to look into Hopkins after that fateful email nearly eight years ago. I asked her how this has influenced her volleyball career — specifically how her family has supported her throughout the different stages.
“My parents always very much encouraged me to pursue whatever I was passionate about,” she explains. “They would drive me to all my practices and come to all my games. They’re just happy to be there and bring snacks, to build a community. But also, they also were traveling around the country [for tournaments] and giving up a lot of weekends. They’re my biggest supporters.”
We then shifted the conversation to talking about her academic achievements here at Hopkins and how she hopes to build on those in her career. Pater tells me that the process of choosing computer science was a little bit like choosing Hopkins.
Pater initially entered college, planning on studying mechanical engineering due to her love of math and science. She then revealed, however, that during her first semester, she switched to the biophysics track. It was in a major-required Intro to Computing course that she found her passion.
“I had never written a line of code in my life, and [this class] was really interesting and difficult, but I was like, this is fun. In the spring semester, I took the gateway Java class, and from there, just fell in love with it,” she said.
Alongside her computer science degree, Pater is also completing a minor in Computational Medicine. We discussed her interest in the field and how it has shaped her plans for after graduation.
“I’m interested in using [computer science] to be able to enter the medical field and make health care better,” she said. “Making patient experiences more positive in hospitals has been something that’s really impactful, and it’s been such a blessing.”
I asked her how her summer internship experience complemented her learning and her interest in medical technology.
“I was really fortunate to have a lot of great internships where they really invested in us as people and as learners,” she recounted. “I felt like that was a big priority, especially after my sophomore year, where I interned at a company called Omnitech.”
Pater goes on to explain that her time at the Sioux Falls-based engineering firm allowed her to gain practical skills in web development, as well as learning how to communicate with clients and create the best solutions for them. She credits this experience as integral to her junior year internship with Stryker, the company she is joining after graduation.
“[Stryker] is my dream company. It was a great fit, because they were looking for a web-development intern,” she revealed. “I really, really loved that internship. I’m going back after graduation, and hoping to be there for a very long time”
After discussing her professional experience, we turned to her on-campus involvement with the Society of Women Engineers at Hopkins, which seek to promote the inclusion of women in STEM fields, where they might face stereotypes or prejudice due to their gender.
“Every woman has experienced that in some way, shape or form over the course of their life, no matter their profession. It been really empowering to be able to band together with other women engineers and share experiences, but also, just learn to be proud of who you are and what you can do, and never underestimate yourself,” she commented. “I feel like that’s one thing they do a great job of is pushing you to do your best and challenge you to do more than you think you can.”
I asked her if there were any similarities between that community and the volleyball team in terms of pushing her to do her best academically and on the court.
“Athletics is definitely a whole other piece when it comes to challenging yourself and pushing yourself,” she emphasized. “I feel like everyone at Hopkins is driven and high-achievers. Being in the athletics department is just another experience where you're just surrounded by these high-achieving people both academically and athletically.”
Pater further highlighted the quality of the athletics program overall, citing last season’s achievement of the Learfield Directors’ Cup Division III title for the second consecutive year. The women’s volleyball team also won the Centennial Conference title.
She also mentioned how the team’s unity and support for each other has been crucial in achieving these results. Originally a middle, she played as an opposite in her freshman and sophomore years, as the team needed more players in that position. Although she is back to playing middle, Pater highlighted the importance of striving to do what is best for the collective.
“In volleyball, you are only as good as every player on the court,” she explained. “You have to be willing to reframe what you see as success, and be willing to sacrifice.”
Lastly, since we are both seniors, I decided to ask her one final question: what is something she hasn’t done yet at Hopkins that she would like to do before May?
“Go to the Homewood Museum,” she responded. “I need to put that on my Hopkins bucket list to do before I graduate.”
Keep an eye out for Pater and the women’s volleyball team as they head to Allentown, Pa. to take on Muhlenberg College and Stockton University!
