By Regina Rossello
Hockey has always been a big part of Amanda Rampado’s life. Growing up in Ontario, Canada, she remembers spending Saturday nights watching hockey games with her family. As a 4-year-old, she had already started ice skating lessons. By the time she turned 5, she began her first season of hockey. “I got to trade my figure skates for hockey skates … from that moment, I fell in love with the game more and more every time I stepped on the ice.”
Rampado’s passion for hockey only grew. Inspired by her brother who played hockey, she worked hard to improve her own skills in the rink. “I wanted to be just like him, which meant that when he wanted to play goalie, I of course wanted to play goalie, too.” When it came time for college, she decided to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to pursue a bachelor’s degree and play on the Division I women’s ice hockey team.
While Rampado ’23, ’24 M.Eng. always dreamed of a career in medicine, having a father as a computer and electrical engineer and a brother as a mechatronics engineer exposed her to the groundbreaking innovations brought forth by engineering. “When I discovered biomedical engineering, I knew it would be the perfect way to combine my passion for medicine with the complex problem-solving I had grown to love through my family,” she said.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering last spring, Rampado took full advantage of her remaining NCAA eligibility and also pursued a master’s degree. “Finishing my [bachelor’s] degree made me realize I still had so much to learn,” she said. “The Department of Biomedical Engineering at RPI has challenged me to learn and grow as an engineer, and the opportunity to be a graduate student in this same department was one that I could not turn down.”
While excelling in the classroom, Rampado was also working hard on the ice. She was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s Goalie of the Month in February 2023 and Goalie of the Week seven times throughout her five years at RPI. This past February, she became the second goaltender in RPI program history to surpass 3,000 saves in her career.
As Rampado prepares to graduate this month and her time at RPI comes to a close, she is exploring opportunities to play professional hockey in Europe next year. After that, she plans to work in the medical devices industry. “I am most looking forward to seeing where my RPI degree will take me, and what adventures will come next,” she said. “I am certain the friendships I have made here will last a lifetime.”
