On February 24-26, several Hurt & Proffitt professionals went to E. C. Glass High School and Heritage High School in Lynchburg to talk to students about engineering and surveying related careers. All presenters were asked to give a one hour presentation describing how and why they pursued a career in engineering or surveying, including their work and various achievements in their chosen fields.
Shannon Cotulla, PE, and Bob Hopkins, PE, from our Civil Engineering department, talked to Mrs. Kim Hansen’s technology class at E. C. Glass High School about civil engineering. A slide show of photographs from many of their projects was included.
Raina Rosado, PE and Tiffany Clifton presented to Mr. Daniel Vanderpol’s drafting class at Heritage High School. Raina gave a brief description of the variety of different projects that civil engineers have done in our Land Development department. Tiffany followed Raina’s presentation with information about environmental issues and the forever changing federal, state, and local regulations that affect civil engineers’ site designs. Tiffany and Raina described how they work as a team to successfully design construction documents to meet the needs of our clients as well as meeting the environmental constraints of a site.
Licensed surveyor, Mike Cassidy met with students to provide information on steps required to pursue licensing in Commonwealth of Virginia. Details were provided on education, experience, and testing required to become a licensed surveyor. Examples of how professional surveying plays a part in civil engineering projects were discussed with the students though project photographs and drawings. Specific local projects were included in the presentation, including the Centra Health Bed Tower and Route 29 Bypass James River Twin Bridges. Students from both schools responded with many questions and appeared to enjoy the real life project examples.
We would like to thank each of the schools for allowing us to meet with students during normal class hours. We appreciate Mrs. Kim Hansen and Mr. Daniel Vanderpol allowing us to visit their classroom. Special thanks to Gary Harvey, chairman of the Technical Drawing Advisory Committee, for coordinating the presentations. Judging by the attention of students during their talk and questions afterwards, the information was well-received and many students are considering pursuing careers in these fields.