Orange County Branch Newsletter
December 2019
ASCE OC K-12 Outreach Committee
CSULB Dream Big 2019 Event
By Victor Aguirre | K-12 Co-Chair
On Saturday, October 19th, ASCE OC Branch/YMF K-12 collaborated with ASCE CSULB to assist in their 2nd annual Dream Big Event. The event consisted of 200 plus middle school and high school students from Orange County and Los Angeles County. Students were brought to the CSULB campus early in the morning where they received goodie bags with giveaways. The giveaways were provided by multiple civil engineering firms such as Huitt-Zollars, Inc., Michael Baker International, Mark Thomas, Cordoba Corporation, Parsons, and Jacobs Engineering.
Students were formed into groups where various student chapters from CSULB and other campuses such as UCI, CSUF, CSUN, and CPP organized hands-on engineering presentations and activities. Each activity had an engineering professional that explained to the students, the science behind the activities and how similar concepts are applied to engineering design and construction.
The workshops hosted for the students were the following: pipelines workshop, soil mechanics activity, water filtration, popsicle stick bridge competition, safe landing egg drop, lab tour & liquefaction demo, design-build activity, LEGOman challenge, aluminum foil boat, traffic game, spaghetti towers, and the folding solar power activity.
After the students finished their activities, a panel of engineers from various branches of civil engineering and different ranges of work experience, had the opportunity to provide insights to the students, in regards to pursuing an engineering degree, work-life balance, projects, challenges encountered as an engineer and much more. The panel speakers also made time to answer various questions from students that showed enthusiasm and curiosity for pursuing engineering as a profession.
After listening to the panel speakers, students finished off the day by watching the screening of Dream Big: Engineering Our World.
We want to thank the ASCE CSULB student chapter, CSULB Department of Civil Engineering, MESA, participating student chapters and professionals for hosting, organizing and volunteering for an event that has the potential to positively impact the lives of hundreds of students throughout the region. We also want to thank the civil engineering firm that provided sponsorship for the event: Michael Baker International.
If you or someone you know is interested in becoming involved with K-12 events, please feel free to contact us at k-12chairs@asceoc.org.
About the Author
Victor Aguirre works in the Urban Development team at Huitt-Zollars, Inc. He graduated from California State University, Long Beach, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Victor has worked on various custom luxury homes, residential developments, commercial developments, road inspections and the USC Hybrid High School.
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