Civil Engineering: Improving the Quality of Life
By Sandra One Feather

   Have you ever dreamed of being part of a team that is building the latest football stadium, designing the course for the Grand Prix race track, or creating roads in a metro area to carry people to and from work? If you've ever had an interest in structures, hydraulics, environmental concerns, highway design, geotechnical engineering or water resources, then the field of civil engineering may be for you. Civil engineering encompasses all aspects of public infrastructure, utility development, urban planning, structural design and transportation.

Civil engineering students

Paths to the Field of Civil Engineering
   Many civil engineers began their careers by asking why tall buildings can stand or bridges don't fall. Dr. Omnia El- Hakim, principal investigator of the Colorado Alliance for Minority Participation (CO-AMP), civil engineering professor, and Fort Lewis College AISES adviser, says her interest in civil engineering was sparked as a young child "due to all the bridges that cross the river Nile in my homeland of Egypt." El-Hakim wanted to figure out how bridges could stay in place and not collapse into the water despite their weight. Her interest in this area led her to obtain a Ph.D. from Colorado State University in civil engineering. Dr. El- Hakim currently teaches the bridge experiment (see sidebar) to minority middle school students in the Colorado Alliance for Minority Participation engineering bridge summer program held at Fort Lewis College (FLC) every summer. The program at FLC provides students with a diverse range of courses including science, math, aerodynamics , and structural design. El-Hakim says the p rogram serves a diverse population that includes members of the Navajo Tribe , Jicarilla Apache Tribe, Southern Ute Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe . Attendance at such a pre-college summer engineering program influenced and encouraged Marlene Kelley, Navajo, to pursue a degree in civil engineering f rom the University of New Mexico. Kelley graduated as one of the few women with a civil engineering degree in 1997 and currently works as a technical staff member for Lucent Technologies.
   Other Natives have taken a diff e rent path to the field of civil engineering. Frankie Lee, Navajo, an engineer with the Nebraska Department of Roads, says he started out in physics, then added math, and then philosophy to his undergraduate majors. Lee ultimately changed majors to civil engineering with an emphasis in water resource and environmental engineering. He is currently pursuing a master's in business administration with an emphasis in management.
   On-the-job training created a strong interest in civil engineering for Bill Frazier, Navajo, who obtained his degree from the University of Colorado in 2001. Frazier helped design and build roads on the Navajo Reservation and also planned for the design of land- fill caps and covers. These jobs allowed Frazier to comprehend the workings of the Navajo reservation in its entirety. As a result, Frazier says "I realized that a civil engineering degree could benefit me and my people."

According to Dr. Omnia El-Hakim, principal investigator of the Colorado Alliance for Minority Participation (CO-AMP), civil engineering professor, and Fort Lewis College AISES adviser, the bridge experiment, ìteaches middle school students how to determine how stress-free a bridge is by applying math. When high school students do the bridge experiment we have them actually build a wooden bridge and then break it by putting calculated pressure or stress on it. The bridge that is able to withstand the most pressure wins.î Dr. Omnia El-Hakim

Applying Your Civil Engineering Degree in the Workplace
   Students interested in civil engineering should take as many math classes as possible, claims El-Hakim. She says learning how to problem-solve with math as the basis is important, and once in a civil engineering program, students take courses such as linear algebra, statistics, dynamics, fluid and hydraulics, and calculus I, II, and III.
   Most civil engineers apply math in their everyday work environment . Frankie Lee says his job as a project manager involves a design process similar to what he studied as an undergraduate , where "you're given certain information which you use to solve a problem and I usually end up grabbing the engineering paper to work through the solution p rocess." Bill Frazier, Navajo, adds, "A lot of the design work that I had in school had a direct bearing on projects at work." For instance, Frazier says the water and sanitary sewer layout and design was exactly what he was taught in school and if you did your homework, you could not go wrong on the job.
   Understanding and interpreting information is a vital skill for civil engineers. Marlene Kelley says her current job as a product engineer "requires me to have a complete understanding of a product and to help designers, testers, installers, suppliers, and manufacturing to produce the best product for our customers." Kelley adds that other factors making the field of civil engineering exciting and challenging are product "cost and manufacturability, plus keeping in mind the customer's needs and time constraints."
   Communication between team members and clients is important to meeting deadlines. Bill Frazier, now a civil engineer with JF Sato & Associates who is part of the team redesigning Denver 's old Stapleton airport into a mix of residential, commercial, and retail development, says it is important "to be able to verbally explain design information or relay pertinent engineering information to fellow engineers or upper- level managers." His team consists of several other private consultants and government entities. Frazier adds that learning and applying engineering computer software is important in managing his projects and meeting timelines.

Internships in Civil Engineering
   Getting a head start on finding out what it's like in the real world is also important in one's career path. El- Hakim encourages civil engineering students to seek out internship opportunities with city and county offices, federal government agencies, and consulting engineering firms. She sees internships as instrumental in helping teach students "how to be assertive, how to lead, and how to conduct research in the field of engineering."
   Many internships off er students unique opportunities. Frazier suggests students "find an internship at the earliest possible time, while you are a freshman or sophomore; this will give you experience to help you choose the type of job you want." During his first internship with Hook Engineering in Denver, Frazier learned how to work with engineering software and "became familiar with how engineering is done in Denver, and what standards are required by the city of Denver as well as other associated metropolitan entities." He is convinced his internship work in hydrology assists him in his present job.
   Frankie Lee graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1996 and spent his internships at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) facility in Boulder, Colorado. His NOAA work involved testing air samples taken from around the world, for chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's). "My work for the professor involved research related to the Animas LaPlata reservoir project's impact upon the water rights of Indian tribes involved with that project."

Continuing Education
   As in many fields, the education of professionals in civil engineering is ongoing. Students take their first day-long engineer-in-training exam while still in school or just after graduation. Bill Frazier says once the test is passed, civil engineers have four years of on-the-job training before taking their professional engineer exam and applying for a license.
Additionally, in competitive marketplaces such as Denver, Frazier emphasizes "engineers must become more marketable by having a wider range of experiences and skills."
   El-Hakim, co-principal investigator of the Colorado PEAKS Alliance, encourages Native American students to pursue a doctorate in engineering. The goal of her program is to increase the number of underrepresented minority students receiving their doctorate degree at PEAKS institutions in the fields of science, math, and engineering. El-Hakim adds "We need role models and mentors in the professoriate to be able to recruit more underrepresented minority students into the science, math, and engineering fields."

Fort Lewis College student Jeremy Hamilton with poster project.

Words of Advice
   The road to becoming a civil engineer is not always an easy one for many Native Americans. Marlene Kelley, Navajo, remembers her first few years in college as difficult and her peers intimidating due to the fact that "I didn't have the strong math and science background that other students brought into the classroom since my high school didn't o ffer advanced courses at the time." Her strategy was to find support within the faculty of her engineering department . Kelley encourages young civil engineering students, especially women, to find a supportive mentor whose guidance can help in overcoming obstacles.
   El-Hakim emphasizes the importance of practicing problem-solving as a way of mastering mathematics. She supports group assistance for studying problem-solving, asserting, "Having a study buddy allows students to learn from each other and become communicators of information."
   Despite the obstacles, Native American civil engineers agree that one of the great aspects about their field is the variety of job choices and projects one can undertake when he/she graduates. Frankie Lee urges students to learn the fundamentals of civil engineering and to "remember that you might have to rely upon an aspect of civil engineering that you don't have a great interest in currently, but might have later on." He suggests students interview for jobs widely and choose wisely, keeping in mind the understanding that "You need to know what you are willing to put up with and what you can't do without." Bill Frazier encourages Native American students to pursue careers in civil engineering because "our reservation lands need roads, water, power, shelter and a better quality of living." He knows that civil engineers can provide a better quality of life for Native people and in the process help empower them.

Sandra One Feather, Oglala Lakota/Diné, is a contributing editor to Winds of Change.