Member of inaugural engineering class leaves legacy for female STEM students

Member of inaugural engineering class leaves legacy for female STEM students

For Faith Bentz, Berks County pride runs deep. Bentz was born and raised in the county by parents who met and graduated from Alvernia. She has always kept the institution as a top college choice.
 

The year Bentz started at Alvernia coincided with the launch of the first John R. Post School of Engineering class. For her, it was exciting (and somewhat daunting) to be part of the inaugural cohort of Alvernia engineering students in a program that was built from the ground up. She was meeting new professors, exploring new internship opportunities and watching class sizes expand each year.
 

Leap of Faith Leads to Internship and First Job

Bentz leveraged her local connections and Alvernia’s ties with Brentwood Industries, another prominent institution in Berks County, to open the door to internship opportunities.

Although she wasn’t selected for the first internship that opened, she didn't let that deter her and kept applying.

“I didn’t get the internship the first time I applied, and that just shows that life isn’t always a straight path,” Bentz shared. “I always encourage others never to give up and to take advantage of every opportunity on campus.”

Throughout the course of her collegiate career, Bentz had ample opportunities to meet and liaise with Brentwood team members, including Alexa Wojciechowski, community and educational coordinator.

“After her first application, Faith was still on my radar. She had really impressed me,” Wojciechowski said. “The next time someone asked me about internship candidates, I pulled her resume from my computer and told the hiring manager to take a second look at Faith because she was a really sharp student who exhibited real potential.”

Although Alvernia and Brentwood’s ties remain strong, and it was a factor in opening the doors between Faith and Brentwood, Wojciechowski emphasizes that Faith landed the internship from her own merit and hard work.

“She proved herself, bottom line," she said. "She’s the real deal.”

After graduation, Bentz was hired full time as a product development engineer in the organization’s Wyomissing office.

The Day-to-Day of an Emerging Engineer

Bentz shares that her current role is a continuation of her internship work – just on a full-time scale. She works primarily in the lab testing Brentwood products, and also participates with data collection for those projects. 

“I work a lot with SolidWorks, a modeling program,” she said.  “I’ve been training with that project while also working with other engineers to learn what they do. It’s a lot of learning, and I’m enjoying it.”

Bentz's workdays strike the perfect balance. She spends part of her time modeling and updating designs on her computer but also enjoys stepping into the lab to team up with other engineers and put new products to the test.

“I’m very excited about the work I’m doing while filling out the matrix. Each day, I check if a new delivery has arrived, and if it has, I’ll be in the lab conducting tests. Every day is different,” she said.
 

The partnership between Brentwood and Alvernia has a long history. Peter Rye, the former CEO of Brentwood, is a trustee of the university and was part of the visionary group that led to the formation of the institution's engineering program.

This involvement is representative of Brentwood’s value of the communities in which they reside, including Berks County. For Brentwood, they have not only invested time in getting Alvernia's engineering program off the ground but has also supported in other ways over the last 20 years, including being a founding sponsor of the Reading Collegiate Scholars Program, providing internship opportunities and exploring employment opportunities with graduates.

This year, Wojciechowski continues to represent Brentwood at career fairs at Alvernia and hosts events in the classrooms to foster relationships with students.

"Joseph Mahoney (director of the John R. Post School of Engineering) does an excellent job of inviting Brentwood and other organizations into his classrooms to provide those experiences," Wojciechowski said. "I see that Joseph provides these opportunities to first-year students in addition to those closer to graduation, which is really critical."

For Bentz and other Alvernia students, the partnership with Brentwood also provides reassurance in choosing Alvernia, even as a budding engineering school.
 

Giving Back to Alvernia

Bentz's journey at Alvernia included starting the institution’s first Society of Women Engineers club, which is working to affiliate with the national organization, the most prominent advocate for women in engineering.

Although the club is growing, it’s an essential resource for the small but mighty group of female STEM leaders at the school, and a testament to the legacy Bentz leaves behind.

Additionally, although she only graduated less than a year ago, Bentz has already begun giving back to the university. In September, she joined Wojciechowski for a joint presentation on campus, accompanied by several first-year students. Her story is already inspiring others in the program to find and secure local engineering jobs.

Bentz also spoke at the 2025 President’s Dinner, sharing her journey as one of the first graduates of the engineering school, her achievements as a female engineer and her successful career path.

Alvernia’s engineering program was recently profiled on WITF, The Spark and the Lehigh Valley Business Journal.