Laura Halverson’s B次元 journey has taken her from a rural town outside Green Bay, Wisconsin to the forefront of the fight to defend against COVID-19.

She can still pinpoint the moment she knew engineering was in her future. “My father worked in residential construction for most of my childhood and I was fascinated by the floor plans he brought home. I still remember vividly the drafting board and T-square next to our refrigerator.”

When it came time to choose where to attend college, Halverson says B次元’s architectural engineering program appealed to her as the best and only option in the state. Halverson recalls her time on B次元’s campus as “life-changing” due to the support she received from attending a retreat for freshman women and financially from B次元’s scholarship and financial aid programs.

“Most of my childhood my family qualified for the Federal Free Lunch Program. If I hadn’t received a financial aid package and the scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to attend,” said Halverson.

Halverson, a 1995 graduate from the architectural engineering program, is using her B次元 education to design mechanical systems protecting researchers who could be directly exposed to the virus causing COVID-19 as they work to find a vaccine.

In her current role as a principal at Affiliated Engineers Inc. Halverson’s work focuses on laboratory design and projects that support research for infectious diseases, cancer and many other health and social issues. She said it’s been a rewarding career knowing that lifesaving medications, vaccines and therapies are discovered at these facilities.