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Alumni spotlight: Sydney Green, C’22

Alumni spotlight: Sydney Green, C’22

by Public Relations | December 06, 2024

LATROBE, PA – Sydney Green, C’22, was a middle-distance runner on the cross country and track and field teams while she was a student at Saint Vincent College. In the two years since her graduation, however, Green has focused on marathons.

“Running marathons is very different from what I ran at Saint Vincent,” Green said. “I used to run half a mile to a mile, and now I’m running 26 miles. It’s longer and more challenging, but also really exciting.”

Green’s transformation as a runner reflects her shift from academic life to a professional career. After spending four years as a student fixed on the short-term goal of earning a degree, she’s engaged in the long haul of building a career with Westinghouse Electric Co.

Starting out with Westinghouse, Green was part of the materials and aging management team that analyzed and extended the lifespans of operating nuclear reactors. Last July, she began a role as a project engineer supporting Westinghouse’s AP300 small modular reactor (SMR) design.

“I’m very happy with the pace my career is taking,” Green said. “I want to take each opportunity as they come and not rush it—keep developing and keep learning.”

At Saint Vincent, Green majored in engineering with concentrations in mechanical and materials and minored in mathematics. She received the 2022 President’s Award —Saint Vincent’s highest student honor—graduated summa cum laude and was the College’s first cross country and track student-athlete to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.

“Saint Vincent has so many opportunities for classes like theology, psychology and sociology—things you probably would not take if you were [an engineering student] at a big school,” Green said. “I took all those classes, and I use a lot of the stuff I learned to this day. I learned how to effectively communicate. Plus, the kind of one-on-one time I had with my professors is something you don't find at a lot at bigger schools.”

During her senior year at Greater Latrobe High School, Green decided to study engineering in college. She was motivated by her participation in the Kennametal Young Engineers Program and an “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” event through Westinghouse.

“In the ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering’ program, they talked about the different opportunities you can pursue within engineering. It opened my eyes to all the possibilities,” Green said. “Now I’m a volunteer [mentor] in the program, so I’ve come full circle.”

Green had a summer internship with Westinghouse and continued to work there part-time throughout her senior year at Saint Vincent. That led her to a full-time job after graduation. As part of the materials and aging management group, she evaluated the material aging degradation of nuclear reactors and helped design and qualify replacement components.

Last spring, Green spent six weeks responding to an outage at the Surry Power Station in southeastern Virginia. “We replaced a failed component with a new one that I helped design and qualify,” she said. “It was rewarding seeing the team install the component after months of hard work.”

With the data centers powering the artificial intelligence boom increasingly thirsty for carbon-free electricity, tech giants such as Google and Amazon are turning to nuclear power. In her new role at Westinghouse, Green is designing a new type of nuclear reactor, the AP300 SMR.

“It only produces 300 megawatts, but it's a good fit for all these data centers that are popping up,” she said. “This was a good transition from my old job. I’m supporting the design of everything within the core barrel where the fuel sits, but I'm not in an analytical role anymore. It's more so looking at all the puzzle pieces and trying to figure out what we need from other groups and how to execute our plan on schedule.”

When she needs a break from fine-tuning a new style of nuclear reactor, Green laces up her running shoes and hits the pavement. She ran the 2023 Pittsburgh Marathon but had to miss this year’s race due to her work assignment in Virginia. After completing three marathons, she’s inching closer to posting a qualifying time for sport’s holy grail: the Boston Marathon.

“My coach at Saint Vincent always told me you’ve got to set three types of goals: easy goals, achievable goals and crazy goals,” Green said. “I still try to do that. My easy goal is to finish marathons. My achievable goal is to run each one faster than the last. My crazy goal is to qualify for Boston.”

 

photo fo Sydney Green inside a steam generator mockup at Westinghouse Electric

Sydney Green inside a steam generator mockup at Westinghouse Electric

Photo of Sydney Green holding her medal after finishing the 2023 Baltimore Marathon

Sydney Green after finishing the 2023 Baltimore Marathon

 

 

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