Our chapter is excited to share what we've been up to under the direction of our new Executive Board! The new board was elected at the end of Spring semester and tasked with taking over the organization and devising plans for the upcoming 2019 - 2020 school year. So far, we have been busy planning events and meetings, discussing strategies for recruiting new members, and thinking of new ways we can make a difference in our community this year.
Our first event as a new board was FAMU Stem Day on April 6th, which is a local event that our chapter participates in every year. Our student volunteers had impressive representation at the event, acting as chaperones and teachers throughout the day. They escorted kids on a tour full of educational activities designed to excite them about the prospect of STEM opportunities in college. The kids loved the experience and the event certainly increased exposure for not only our college, but the STEM field in general.
Although community outreach is one of our top priorities, our student chapter also prioritizes staying connected with our local FES and ASCE parent chapters. To start facilitating this relationship, our members attended the FES-ASCE Joint Social on April 12th at Proof Brewing Company in Tallahassee. We had the opportunity to introduce our new executive board to some of our parent chapter members that play such an important role in our success!
April 18th was Senior Design Day, where students present the final product of their long-awaited Senior Design Project. Our members volunteered to pass out pizza and congratulate all of our seniors who were celebrating being that much closer to graduation. We will miss our Class of 2019 seniors, but we are sure they are off to do amazing things!
On April 25th, our FAMU-FSU College of Engineering (COE) hosted a Bring Your Kids to Work Day, and our chapter was asked to facilitate a demonstration. Without missing a beat, our new service chair, Julia Vitale, quickly put together a water filter demonstration that the kids truly enjoyed. Their task was to reduce the turbidity of a concoction of coffee grinds, Gatorade, and other suspended solids. The kids were captivated by the hands-on learning experience and even got to use a turbidimeter to check the results.
Although Spring semester ended during the first week of May, our members were still active throughout the remaining summer months, building off of the momentum that began with our first few events in April.
We were asked by FES to supply volunteers for their Sporting Clays Shoot Fundraiser on May 17th. We had one member shoot and five volunteers. Our volunteers spent the day at the Wantman Group, Inc. booth, helping them pass out snacks and keep score for the shooters.
The next day, on May 18th our COE hosted the Bridge Encounters Tournament. This tournament gives middle and high school students from around the nation the opportunity to build the most cost effective bridge that can support a pre-designated load. At the event, our members handed out breakfast, and then chaperoned the kids to a few educational activities where they had to use an engineering mindset to solve problems. With Christin Gorman of EGS, the kids built a rollercoaster powered by the force of gravity and used it to land a marble into a cup. The second activity was more structural, where the kids had to build a tower out of spaghetti, string, and a marshmallow. The tallest and prettiest towers both received rewards. Overall, it was a fantastic and successful event that we were happy to be a part of hosting!
One June 24th, our ASCE parent chapter hosted their annual Golf Tournament Fundraiser, where the student chapter had the chance to represent ourselves with volunteers and golfers. We spent a great day in the sun, greeting members, golfing, and making sure the event went off without a hitch!
Our biggest events of this summer involved representing our chapter at two different conferences: ASCE Annual Conference in Orlando on July 18th - 19th and FES Annual Conference in St. Petersburg on July 24th - 26th. Both conferences gave our members a great opportunity to network with professionals and learn more about engineering through some of the conference seminars. Our members walked away with plenty of business cards and quality conversations which allowed us to increase our exposure as a college and chapter. The FES Conference was especially significant since we were presented with two awards: Honorable Mention for Most Active Student Chapter and Outstanding Contribution to a Student Chapter was awarded to our past ASCE Vice President, Maggie Martins!
We are excited for the year ahead of us and look forward to welcoming any new members to our family this Fall!