Encouraging the Next Generation of Engineers
As part of our ongoing pledge to contribute to the communities we serve, JMT invited a group of 30 students from North Carroll Middle School in Hampstead, Maryland, to visit our Sparks office and learn firsthand what it means to be an engineer.
The kids learned about various disciplines in engineering in an activity that involved six education stations, each with a different focus: structures, planning, water/wastewater, MEP, civil/site, and architecture. They also watched a presentation on Building Informational Modeling (BIM).
Later on, the students had the opportunity to build towers using only two sheets of newspaper that could stand for at least 30 seconds. Most of the towers reached between 20 and 80 centimeters. Then, each group was given the opportunity to rebuild using two sheets of newspaper and an item of their choice: one foot of transparent tape or six sheets of cardstock. The tallest tower reached more than 100 centimeters after rebuilding using the cardstock and stood for the 30 seconds.
JMT was delighted to give these budding engineers a look into the business, and even more pleased to receive numerous “thank you” notes from the group.
A letter from the school’s counselor read: “Your employees were passionate, organized, personable, and demonstrated commitment and dedication to their professions and to JMT. The students walked away with valuable insight and information related to the engineering field and career path.”
From the students, we read wonderful tidbits such as:
“You guys taught me so much on this trip and I think I want to do aerospace engineering after all that you showed me.”
“For me, a result of this trip was finding out that architecture is a possible career field to look into. I am also very interested in structural engineering. This trip was an important milestone in my life and I will never forget it.”
“I learned that planning is vital to engineering because it shows how all the components work together.”
“I learned a lot from the trip, from the many kinds of engineering, to how they all need to work together and how changing one thing can make a difference.”
Thank you to the students of North Carroll Middle for visiting. We hope to meet some of you again as young engineers!
JMT is dedicated to giving back to the community, whether that is through volunteer work or teaching the next generation about the engineering industry. Click here to read more about our commitment to the community.
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