Cal Poly SCE Earns ASCE Distinguished Chapter Award
Cal Poly’s Society of Civil Engineers (SCE) student chapter recently received the Distinguished Chapter award for Region 9, which covers the entire state of California. This honor is awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to one outstanding student chapter in each region.
Structural engineering professor Daniel Jansen served as faculty advisor to the club this past year.
“It’s a great group of students and they really don’t need much advising,” Jansen said. “They have good internal leadership and a dedicated core of officers.”
Civil engineering senior Rebecca Maloney is the president of Cal Poly SCE. Maloney got involved with the chapter as a freshman. She started in the mentorship program, moved on to join the events committee the next year and became the Vice President of Events her junior year.
“SCE has become my community on campus. It’s where I have found people that I know will be in my life long past when we all graduate,” Maloney said. “Being a part of the club has given me many opportunities to pursue leadership roles and, in turn, I attribute a lot of my personal, academic, and professional growth to these opportunities — such as starting to overcome my never ending fear of public speaking.”
Over the years, SCE has become known for planning and executing the Civil and Environmental Engineering Career Fair alongside the student Society of Environmental Engineers (SENVE) chapter. Maloney also noted that the club has been growing their peer-mentorship program for four years now.
Jansen said that, in addition to their leadership team, all of the members (around 250 students) help the club to participate in and excel at many different things. From the peer-mentoring program, to community outreach, to Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge, transportation and environmental engineering events at the Pacific Southwest Regional Conference, the club has been successful for years.
“To me, this award is far more meaningful than any single event, because it recognizes the collective excellence of the student chapter and the contributions of so many,” Jansen said.
All of the clubs and organizations that Cal Poly CE/ENVE offers are amazing, Maloney said. SCE happened to be the club that she decided to stick with.
“I have been so fortunate to be a part of such an amazing organization throughout college, and it will definitely be what I miss most once I graduate,” Maloney said.