Catherine’s Scholarship Story

Hometown to New Horizons

As a student at the LSU Laboratory School, the K-12 school on LSU’s campus, Catherine Credeur felt wanderlust to explore beyond the borders of campus and her home state. Scholarship offers at LSU pulled her attention back home when it came time to choose a college, and she pivoted plans with confidence. 

“Everything that I saw at LSU while I was a student at the University Laboratory School showed me that it could be a place where I could experience immense growth in all aspects — in education, as a human,” she remembered. 

Now rounding out her undergraduate degree in communication disorders and as part of the Ogden Honors College, Catherine’s next step is graduate school, a critical milestone in reaching her goal of being a speech language pathologist. 

“I always kind of knew about speech language pathology because I had a speech impediment when I was a kid,” she shared, adding, “Working with my speech therapist, I obviously formed a really deep connection with her, and it was just very impactful to me.”

Philanthropic support through the Springmeyer Family Fund and the Hans & Donna Sternberg Endowed Honors Scholarship have provided a pathway to both accomplish that goal and feed her enthusiasm for travel. 

“I really don't think that I would be able to have as many opportunities as I've had today and as many experiences that I've had here at LSU,” Catherine said of the impact scholarship funding has had. 

When a friend encouraged Catherine to join her on a study abroad trip to Australia, the Baton Rouge native’s wheels started turning. She’d always been intrigued by Australia’s natural environment and found herself getting excited about the prospect of experiencing that firsthand alongside the intersection of city and beach lifestyles. Soon, she was enrolled at the University of Sydney and traveling “the furthest I’ve been” for an immersive summer that would expose her to different learning styles and strengthen skills in several areas.

“I definitely think my study abroad experience expanded a lot of skills that are very directly related to speech therapy, specifically communication skills,” she said.

Soaking up as much of Australia’s culture was a priority, too, so Catherine maximized the chance to travel during her study abroad trip. She said, “Outside of class, I did travel to a few different places around Australia, and then toward the end of the trip, I went to New Zealand as well. And so, it was just a lot of go, go, go the whole time trying to get as much experience as I could.”

Back here at home, research opportunities at LSU have provided yet another avenue for discovery. Scholarship funding made it possible for Catherine to access an unpaid research position directly tied to her career aspirations — and with direct impact that felt tangible and meaningful.

“I really don't think that I would be able to have as many opportunities as I've had today and as many experiences that I've had here at LSU.”

Catherine explained, “I was able to help one of the professors here. Her lab is the aphasia lab, and I was able to help her with a little bit of research. She was starting a new project about how AI can be used with cognitive behavioral therapy, and she was going to use that with patients with dementia. … And so that was very eye opening. I learned a lot about dementia and how that connects to speech and how, cognitively, I could help patients in that way. Her trying to figure out how that can be implemented into our lives, especially in the medical field, is going to be a really big impact.” 

Now, Catherine is preparing to embark on her next adventure — graduate school — equipped with experiences that were mere flickers of wonder just a few years ago, steps beyond the Parade Ground in high school and with the world awaiting her at LSU.