Mehran Pourzanjani, SE
President
Inspiring the next generation
In February SEAOSC hosted the annual scholarship and career fair night. It was an opportunity for us to meet and recognize the next generation of earthquake engineers, and reward those who have achieved scholastic excellence with scholarships. It is important that students strive for excellence as they embark onto their careers. The candidates for scholarships are selected and recommended by the SEAOSC Younger Member Committee, co-chaired by Michael Daciolas and Cheng Song. The scholarships are awarded by SEAOSC foundation, chaired by-Past President Kevin O’ Connell and the funding is by firms and individuals. This year the SEAOSC Foundation had a significant donation by CSI Inc. Nine $1,500 scholarships and one $2,000 David and Margaret Narver Memorial Scholarship were awarded to 10 students. The students represented various universities in Southern California. Congratulations to all the scholarship recipients!
I was delighted to see many friends and colleagues representing over 14 different Structural Engineering firms at the event discussing career opportunities with the students and inspiring them. I hope that all of us in the Structural Engineering community can appreciate our responsibility and role in cultivating future generations in our profession. This starts with the students in our institutions pursuing state-of-the-art academic knowledge; however, they also require mentoring, fostering and inspiration towards a future in the profession. This is particularly important now as the profession faces more alluring competition for the students from other engineering studies. The career fair provided the opportunity to offer internship positions for the students to experience the profession first hand. This is a win-win proposition as students experience on the job training and the gratification of experiencing a building form shape from drawings to reality, while a firm is able to evaluate and invest in a potential future candidate. I hope most of you will consider offering internship opportunities to students in this spirit.
Lastly, we also celebrated the 90th Birthday of SEAOSC at the event by ceremoniously blowing out candles on a cake featuring our new logo. This was a celebration of the vision, dedication and volunteerism of the twelve Structural Engineers that started the Association in February 1929 and that of SEAOSC members, and officers who have since served the association.
I look forward to seeing you all at the next dinner event on March 6th.
Correction:
In last month’s Presidents message SEAOSC was declared as the oldest Structural engineering Association in the world, based on the history reflected on the Associations website. Peter Maranian S.E. was kind enough to bring to our attention the existence of a group in the United Kingdom who in 1922 renamed themselves “Institution of Structural Engineers”. The group consisted of various building industry factions including engineers, architects, chemist, manufactures and surveyors. The Institution received its Royal Charter in 1934. Established in 1929, SEAOSC remains as one of the oldest Structural Engineers Associations in the world with the distinction that it was created by and for Structural Engineers exclusively.
