Submitted by Saint Martin’s University
Engineers rock our world with innovations that make life not only possible but better. Clean drinking water, productive crop yields, refrigeration and prosthetic devices for amputees are just some of the benefits we reap from the world of engineering.
“Engineers do really great things for people and society,” says Zella Kahn-Jetter, Ph.D., P.E., dean of The Hal and Inge Marcus School of Engineering at Saint Martin’s University. “But engineers do so much of their work in the background that people often don’t realize how much their quality of life is impacted by the inventiveness of those in the engineering field.”
That’s the message Kahn-Jetter wants to underscore for 100 high-school students when they attend the University’s inaugural Engineering Awareness Day on Wednesday, Feb. 19, on the Lacey campus. Students from Pope John Paul II High School, as well as students at Olympia, Capital and Tumwater high schools, will be welcomed at 9 a.m. inside the new Fr. Richard Cebula, O.S.B. Hall. Cebula Hall, which houses the engineering program, gained national attention recently when it became the highest-rated, LEED-certified building in the Western Hemisphere after it was granted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Engineering Awareness Day falls in the middle of this year’s annual Engineers Week, or EWeek, founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers to ensure a diverse, well-educated, future engineering workforce by increasing the understanding of technology careers through various events designed for schools, businesses and community groups.
“Saint Martin’s University is committed to enhancing college aspirations among students, particularly those within our local region,” says Scott Andrew Schulz, Ph.D., dean of enrollment at Saint Martin’s. “Engineering Awareness Day will inspire young minds and highlight a path toward high-caliber civil and mechanical engineering programs designed for the twenty-first century.”
During their visit to Cebula Hall, the high school students will be able to visit several classrooms to observe a series of demonstrations, presentations and discussions by faculty and engineering students on different aspects of engineering. These will include mechanical engineering senior design projects; various bridge designs; energy conservation; environmental engineering and the testing of engineering materials.
Kahn-Jetter will address the students with a talk on “Why Engineering?”
