Tales from a mentor: Inspiring the next generation of engineers

Submitted by Chris Carter, EIT, LEED AP, Structural Engineering Designer (Albany, NY)



“I don’t want to be an engineer, it involves way more math than I expected.” The other mentors and I had to laugh a little at one student’s comments during the final presentations for this year’s ACE Mentor Program in Albany, NY.

Well, maybe engineering isn’t for everyone, but a vast majority of students who participate in the ACE program are thrilled by the possibilities for creativity and problem solving in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries. Every year, we see a mix of new and returning students, and as mentors, we try to find new, fun, and exciting ways to show them what we do.

The primary goal of the ACE Mentor Program is to engage and excite high school students so that they become interested in pursuing careers in our field. I’ve been an ACE Mentor since 2008, when a colleague, Chad Reinemann, asked for my help with it. Our office has been involved with the program since 2004. There are seven other companies in the Albany area who participate, and we all take turns hosting two or three sessions throughout the school year.

Chris (left) and fellow Stantec ACE
mentor Chad Reinemann at a session.

This year, the students were tasked with the main project of designing an elementary school. Each session focused on a single aspect of the design, and the students were broken up into teams and given activities to help them progress their design. Activities included using paper cutouts of various rooms to lay out the building footprint on a site plan, sketching bus loops and parking lots while considering turning radii, visual classification of soil samples, modeling and testing roof structures, lighting simulation, and more.

In Albany, Stantec hosted two of the project sessions. The first focused on structural engineering. After a short presentation about what structural engineers do, the students were given index cards and tape with the assignment of constructing a roof system that could span 8 inches. The finished models were then load tested, and the students were able to see how the strengths of each design compared to the others.

For our second session, Chad and I recruited two members from the survey group to help. Jason Swett and Charlie Helmrath set up surveying equipment around the office, showed the students how to use it, and then gave them the opportunity to locate pre-established points.

Stantec colleague Jason Swett showing
students how to use survey equipment.

This brings us back to the final presentations. At the end of each program year, we ask the teams to do a quick presentation about the experience for their parents and the mentors, and we ask them what their future plans in the industry might be. Some of the younger students said that they would like to remain in the program again next year. Other students expressed interest in becoming architects, biomedical engineers, and roller coaster designers.

After all was said and done, one student’s father expressed his thanks to the mentors and perhaps gave us one of our most satisfying endorsements. He said his son, a high school freshman, was always overly excited to attend the sessions and can’t wait to be able to do it again next year. And that is the reason why we are ACE mentors. It is gratifying to be able to make what we do every day seem interesting and exciting to the new generation of designers and builders.