On November 9, 2022, the I-35 Waco Project marked its official completion with a ribbon-cutting that saw VIPs from around the state come to celebrate the project finishing months ahead of schedule. But it meant something a bit more personal to one individual. Caroline Golden “grew up,” as it were, as a young professional during the project. While I-35 was being built, so too was her early career.
In 2019, when the I-35 Waco Project began, Caroline was a senior at Baylor University in Waco. But the road that brought her there for college stretched around the globe.
“I traveled a lot growing up,” Golden says. “My father works for Chevron, and we never really settled down anywhere. But we had family in Texas, and that seemed like a good place to anchor myself for college.”
Baylor University attracted Golden with its variety of study and the stability the city provided after early life on the road with her parents. That word stability figures large in Golden’s unconscious motivations for settling in the “big small town” of Waco, Texas.
“The feeling of community is strong,” she says. “The people are friendly, and having a community here definitely helped me feel at home.”
At Baylor, Golden gravitated toward communications, which she attributes to her international travel growing up. When you move to a new place, you have to get the lay of the land fast or stick out. You have to learn how to talk to new people about the things that matter to them. Golden says those things are surprisingly similar, regardless of creed, culture, or national origin. “What unites us is more common than we sometimes realize,” she says.
Golden was a senior when the project broke ground. Enter Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Research Engineer John Habermann, whose role as mobility coordinator is to help smooth relations between the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and local citizens and business owners during construction. One day, Habermann visited one of Golden’s classes looking for a student interested in a public relations internship to help him do that. Golden’s innate appreciation for bringing differing viewpoints to the table—achieving stability among various stakeholders, if you will—made her the ideal candidate for the job.
“As part of The Texas A&M University System, TTI’s mission is to provide educational opportunities and real-life experiences to help students become young professionals in their chosen fields,” Habermann says.
The summer before her final semester at Baylor, Golden joined Habermann as an intern in TTI’s Waco Office. Not surprisingly, Golden excelled in the position and earns high praise from Habermann for her amiable attitude and positive professionalism.
“Caroline has a natural resolve and graciousness about her that exudes confidence with humility,” Habermann says. “It was a delight to work with her during her internship year, and to encourage her development as she moved from college into her professional career.”
For her part, Golden looks back fondly on the year with Habermann at TTI, noting how it crystallized classroom theory by dropping her into the deep end of the pool of real-world experience. She half-jokes that the most challenging part of the job early on was learning all the transportation acronyms that went with it.
“Every industry has its jargon, and transportation is certainly no exception. It sounded a bit like a shorthand foreign language to me, but I got it eventually,” she laughs. “John’s mentorship was instrumental in that too. He always encouraged questions and took the time to answer them.”
Golden credits Habermann with her first “real” job. As the internship wound down, he reached out to a colleague at CD&P, a public relations and communications firm in Austin, Texas, to see if they might need someone full-time. (TxDOT’s Waco District hired CD&P to handle its public outreach during the project.) The fact that Golden not only came highly recommended by Habermann but already had experience on the project made hiring her a no-brainer.
Stability, again—for Golden, CD&P, TxDOT, and the I-35 Waco Project, too.
“Caroline is one of the most complex, brightest people I have ever met and we were so excited to have her join the CD&P team,” says Jacqie Wilson, her supervisor at CD&P. “She’s extremely perceptive and insightful, and brings an exceptional level of professionalism and compassion to her work, which is extremely important in public engagement. Working with her has been a treat, and she inspires me to be better at what I do professionally and personally.”
After her first year with CD&P as a community engagement coordinator, the firm quickly promoted Golden to community engagement specialist. They say history is the best predictor of the future, so her success at CD&P is no surprise.
“My internship with John and TTI was the perfect training ground for what I’m doing now,” Golden says. “John taught me how to translate complex engineering subjects into everyday language for people, to help them understand why construction is happening and how they’ll eventually benefit from it. He was a fantastic mentor in that regard.”
But Golden’s future isn’t solely career focused. Married in June, the next chapter of her personal life is also well under way. When asked to jump forward 50 years and look back on what she’d like her professional legacy to be, Golden takes a moment to consider her response.
“I’ve been blessed with a lot of people in my corner my whole life,” she says. “My parents, my community here in Waco, my instructors and friends at Baylor, John and Jacqie—too many to name! Without them, I wouldn’t have had so many opportunities to learn what I wanted to do professionally—and to learn to enjoy it. So I want to mentor others in the same way—help them find their perfect fit professionally, if I can, as I go along in my own career. I can’t wait to help others like others have helped me.”
Jake Smith
I-35 Public Information Officer
254-867-2705
Contact My35
In addition to coordinating construction, TxDOT’s I-35 Waco District team monitors performance metrics for the corridor such as:
