Team members in our Philadelphia office recently ramped up efforts to introduce the next generation of talent to our profession by hosting the first two in a series of ACE Mentor Program events.
After initially launching an ACE (Architects Construction Engineering) team in Philadelphia last year, STV has increased the size of its mentoring team, which is being led by Lauren Garoppo, engineering specialist.
“Lauren has done a fantastic job organizing the meetings, presenting to the students, and coordinating with other ACE mentoring firms,” said Jim Martin, P.E., senior vice president and head of our vehicles group. “Our other office mentors are also great at engaging with the students and getting them excited about the various activities.”
The 12-week program offers opportunities for local high school students to learn more about engineering, architecture and construction industry services and career paths.
Garoppo and Branden Tolle, engineering specialists, led this season’s first engineering class, which focused on mechanical engineering and rail vehicles. It also included a rail wheel interface and crash energy management activity. Students fabricated their own crash energy absorbers and tested them on a model train. The absorber with the lowest G-force recorded after impact won.
During the second engineering class, Dwayne Brown, P.E., highway engineer; Sean McCreesh P.E., ENV SP, project manager; and Christina Wilson, P.E., bridge engineer, taught the students about green streets and different types of bridges. They followed that with an informative activity where the students got to build and test their bridge designs.
“ACE mentoring is an incredibly fulfilling way to instill, and foster, interests in STEM for high school students,” Garoppo said. “We help them discover different career outlets based on their interests. These students are smart and excited to learn. It’s so great to watch them take high-level concepts and use their knowledge to solve problems during the sessions. I’ve really enjoyed participating in ACE and look forward to continuing the program at STV for years to come.”
