Orange County Branch Newsletter

December 2019

ASCE OC K-12 Outreach

Inspiring a Generation of Future Engineers

By Memo Medina | K-12 Co-Chair



ASCE OC YMF K-12 Outreach Committee ended the year strong with visits to five different schools in Orange County, inspiring a generation of future engineers. Thank you to all of our volunteers for taking the time to represent ASCE OC YMF and talk to hundreds of elementary through high school students about civil engineering. Learn more about our visits below and follow our EventBrite for upcoming events.

If you or anyone you know is interested in becoming involved with K-12 events, please contact our K-12 Chairs at k-12chairs@asceoc.org.

Anaheim Union High School District - College and Career Fair

On Wednesday, October 2nd, ASCE OC YMF participated in the Anaheim Union High School District College and Career Fair. The event had students from all of Anaheim from elementary school through high school. OC YMF had the opportunity to educate and inspire students about the civil engineering profession. The ASCE volunteers were able to present on what it takes to become a civil engineer and talk about the different fields within civil engineering. Many students were incredibly enthusiastic about engineering in general and the volunteers were able to make sure they know civil engineering is an exciting option for all of them as a career path. The booth was fully stocked with ASCE goodies, one of which was the Dream Big stickers with the hope that students or parents watch the documentary and spark that interest in civil engineering. A special thanks to our volunteers for this 3-hour event, Mary Talka, Mario Martinez, Raul Rodriguez, Victor Aguirre, and Memo Medina all did an awesome job representing ASCE and inspiring a generation of future engineers.

Culverdale Elementary School - Science Fair Projects

On October 15th and October 22nd, ASCE OC YMF visited a 6th grade classroom at Culverdale Elementary School. The teacher that reached out to ASCE was interested in having professionals from the local community come out and work with the students on their Science Fair projects. Our volunteers were able to attend the class twice and work with the students as they developed the concepts for their projects for the school’s Science Fair. OC YMF volunteers provided a brief introduction to the civil engineering profession and explained how we are problem solvers for our communities and tied it back to how the skills we use each day are the same skills that the students are currently developing through their projects. As the students work through their projects, they start to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills that then translate to a good foundation for any STEM-related career. The students were incredibly passionate about their original ideas for their projects. As the students go through their local Science Fair competition, there will be a few that move forward to the district’s Science Fair and eventually the counties. We hope to see them at the Orange County Science Fair later this year!

Heroes Elementary School - Fall Festival

On Friday, October 25th, ASCE OC YMF participated in the Heroes Elementary School Fall Festival. ASCE set up a booth where we were able to teach students and parents about the world of civil engineering. The event was a blast, most students were wearing their Halloween costume and having their parents there with them made it easy for us to talk about civil engineering and the Dream Big film. We’re planning on collaborating more with Heroes Elementary School in the near future since they have an amazing principal that is happy to have us come out to do smaller classroom visits to present on civil engineering and also do some hands-on STEM activities to teach the students about engineering.

Savanna High School - Lunch Presentation

On Monday, October 28th, ASCE OC YMF visited Savanna High School to do a presentation to a group of students interested in learning about civil engineering. We were expecting just a handful of students and ended up with a full room of students that decided to attend after the counselors reached out to the teachers to inform the students about the event. The presentation consisted of the different fields of civil engineering, the day to day tasks, what to expect at a 4-year university, and how to best prepare for a career in civil engineering. There were a few seniors in the audience that were currently in the process of applying to college and we had one come up at the end of the presentation that is already applying under the civil engineering major and we expressed how he should look for the ASCE student chapter as soon as he gets to whichever college he gets to!

Orange County School of the Arts - Civil Engineering Club

On Fridays, October 18th and November 8th, ASCE OC YMF visited the Orange County School of the Arts. ASCE OC is happy to continue coming out to this school to meet with the recently founded Civil Engineering Lunch Club, started up last year by Aleks Cornforth, a sophomore at the school who was interested in learning about civil engineering. The club has 4-5 active participants that attend the meetings where they learn from us on a variety of civil engineering topics. On October 18th, we talked about bridge design and had them work on their own bridge that we loaded until failure. When we came back on November 8th, we took a set of full-size drawings for a private development project in Costa Mesa and showed them the different design components like grading, storm drain, utilities, paving recommendations, and construction details. We look forward to continuing our visit to the school one Friday every month and expanding on their civil engineering knowledge. We hope that when the time comes to apply to colleges, the students will be interested in pursuing a STEM-related major.

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