In celebration of Black History Month, Boston’s Tamia Burkett, project officer, and Oluchi Anyachukwu, structural bridge engineer, recently visited Cristo Rey Boston High School (CRB) to discuss their respective journeys into engineering and shared insights into how are making an impact in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry.

CRB serves families of limited economic resources and provides exposure to careers that students might not have otherwise considered. STV is proud to have partnered with the school for three years to help promote STEM careers.

Burkett and Anyachukwu were also joined by John Grieco, P.E., NETTCP QAT, quality assurance manager, and Gabe Murphy, project assistant, spoke to the class about STV projects in the Boston area and how pleased they are that their work has positively impacted the CRB area community. 

“It was a rewarding experience to be able to share the different aspects of the transportation industry as career paths for the students,” Anyachukwu said. “And even more rewarding was seeing the genuine interest that arose in each of the students.”

After the project presentations, the students had plenty of thoughtful questions for the group and were excited to participate in a bridge building activity. They then competed to see who could build a bridge that could support the most phones.

“Gabe on our team is a CRB alumnus and my daughter teaches math at the school,” Grieco said. “Each year, I look forward to STV staff sharing how they made their way into our industry.” 

CRB is part of a national network of schools that help provide tuition scholarships to students as part of a work-study program. Burnett and Anyachukwu discussed how internship programs helped them get firsthand knowledge of the industry and the varying opportunities, while Murphy explained how work-study can assist in gaining exposure to the AEC community.