Disk of Knowledge

December 2008 - Reaching Out to Young Members and Student Chapters

Over the past year the Construction Institute has promoted outreach to young members and student chapters by creating a Younger Members Directorate and co-sponsoring Student Days in August, 2008 with local CI Chapters from San Francisco and Sacramento. In the January/February 2008 edition of The Construction Zone Stan Caldwell, ASCE Regional Technical Director highlighted the potential for “exciting results” when Section and Branch technical groups form Institute Chapters. Local Institute Chapters have the ability to expand activities with both private and public sector engineers who can outreach to young members at ASCE College and University chapters.

Our 2008 Student Days in Burlingame, CA brought together 17 YMF volunteers from Northern California and Nevada along with ASCE Student Chapter leaders from 12 Universities. YMF volunteers were introduced to planning, organizing and conducting events. This experience was both informative and transitional. The interaction with professionals gave students and young members opportunities to become comfortable in approaching possible employers. It also gave students and young members reason to question the direction they had been planning to take with Civil Engineering and exposure to options never considered. The overall enthusiasm from this event comes from students stating “I can’t wait to attend again next year.”

The Sacramento Chapter of CI asks, “Why wait until next year?” As we brainstormed and implemented our strategic plans for 2009 we reviewed our purpose “to locally promote interest and advance engineering knowledge in the construction industry.” By setting a goal to focus on outreach to colleges and universities with campus visits, formal presentations and project tours the Sacramento Chapter of CI (SSCI) participated in the following outreach events:

• Sacramento Section Young Members Forum – SSCI members attended the YMF monthly meeting providing information, inviting participation and answering questions about ASCE Institutes.
• California State University, Chico Civil Engineering Department - Project tour of the Folsom Bridge project by CI and Kiewit Construction.
• California State University, Sacramento 2nd place winner of the Construction Management Competition. SSCI Board Members from Granite Construction organized and assisted and interacted with local student chapters.
• California State University, Fresno – SSCI Chair provided the keynote address to at the annual ASCE Fresno Branch Banquet.
• California State University, Sacramento – CI sponsored the Monthly Student Chapter Meeting. SSCI Advisor Firm, Kiewit Construction provided a technical presentation on the Folsom Bridge.
• California State University, Fresno – SSCI Chair attended the 2008 Fall Semester Senior Project Competition making a keynote address to students.
• SSCI Board creates Student Advisor position and appoints the ASCE CSU, Sacramento Student Chapter President-Elect as Student Advisor.

The results of our local outreach initiatives with young and student members are exciting. By involving young members at the local level ASCE will continue to identify and develop future leaders and great engineers.