June 02, 2003
ADVISING YOUNG PEOPLE ON FUTURE CITY COMPETITION,
ENGINEERS GAIN NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THEIR OWN CAREERS
Across America, thousands of engineers annually volunteer to serve as mentors for students in the National Engineers Week Future City CompetitionTM. Many volunteers say they join in to help students get a better view of the world of engineering, to give something back to the community, or for the gratitude they receive from teachers, students and parents.
Consistently, however, the engineers who guide the students from conception to design to construction of their future cities also say that one of the finest rewards is how the students give them a better perspective of their own lives as engineers.
“It’s helped me not be so narrowly focused,” says Tony Arikol, P.E., an engineering consultant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who helped his team of middle school students from St. Thomas More School to win the state’s regional competition and then go on to earn second place in the 2003 Future City national finals in Washington, D.C. As an engineer, Arikol says, “sometimes you get tunnel vision. Young people are a lot more creative as thinkers. They help you look outside for novel solutions. And when you look for novel solutions, you find them.”
“Kids always have an idea,” agrees John Medler, a project manager for Schlumberger in Houston and a mechanical and environmental engineer by training. In 2003, Medler advised a student team from Atascocita Middle School in nearby Humble all the way to first place in the Texas-Houston regional and third place at nationals. “What’s that term – thinking outside the box? Well, that’s what these students do naturally.”
In the competition, seventh- and eighth-graders design, first on computer and then in three-dimensional scale models, cities of tomorrow. Now entering its twelfth year, the program has become one of the most successful educational outreach programs of its kind, having already reached more than 100,000 young people. The students, usually working in teams of three and with the help of a teacher, must devise a city that functions (using the popular SimCity 3000 software donated to each participating school by Maxis), write an essay and abstract, and defend their city model before a panel of judges. In 2002-03, more than 30,000 students from more than 1,000 schools in 31 regions around the United States participated. Thirty-six regions are expected in the 2003-04 competition.
Students begin their cities at the beginning of the school year, working during and after school and through holidays breaks. While Future City was once primarily an extracurricular activity, increasingly schools use it as part of math, science and technology courses. Regional competitions are held in January. First-place teams (including the engineer mentor) win all-expense-paid trips to Washington, D.C., for national finals during National Engineers Week, February 22-28, 2004. National Engineers Week 2004 is co-chaired by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Fluor.
Advising, cajoling, or simply serving as sounding boards along the way are engineer mentors from every walk of the profession. That participation, though, sometimes means just sitting back and letting the students work it out for themselves. “I try to motivate through inaction,” says Medler. “They come up with some wild ideas, but I don’t say anything because – who knows – it may work.”
As for his own sense of engineering, Medler says Future City offers a pleasantly different take. “Engineers have a tendency to go straight to the answers. This program brings you back to opening up you own mind to solve a problem.”
He adds, “Kids aren’t scared to try. They’re open to alternatives and they give it a shot. You can learn by the naiveté of kids who don’t know the difference.”
The new perspective is just one of the rewards of volunteering, says Freddie Bazen, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy who helped Mission Middle School in Omaha go from Nebraska to Washington in 2003 to win first place, though because of the war in Iraq, he wasn’t able to leave his base to travel with the team. For Bazen, a mechanical engineer, the real payback for volunteering is assisting young people. “The Navy is big on mentoring,” he says, “and it was through mentoring that I was helped along. Younger folks need the same thing. I get gratification knowing that I helped them see engineering in a new way.”
Those new insights into engineering come at a critical time in a child’s life, says Bazen. “It’s super important to expose them to something that may become part of their lives and to do it before they’re into their teen years.”
Not only are the students directly involved in the competition influenced, he says, but also their friends and the community at large. “There’s a tremendous amount of support from the community.”
For engineers who may balk at volunteering because of the possibility of having to spend too much time with the project, Tony Arikol has a solution. “Take the baby step and put down the minimum amount of time to volunteer,” he recommends. “It doesn’t require a humongous commitment. I was dragged kicking and screaming, but I guarantee they won’t be able to hold themselves back once they get involved. I was vice president of my company when I first volunteered and now I’m president. It must not have been that bad.”
Engineers interested in more information can contact Carol Rieg, National Director, at (877) 636-9578, via e-mail at CRieg@futurecity.org or visit www.futurecity.org. All interested engineers will be put in touch with their area's regional coordinator.
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Editors Please Note:
Photographs of the first, second and third place 2003 Future City Competition teams are available. Contact Donald Lehr at (212) 967-8200 or dlehr@futurecity.org.
IN BRIEF: The National Engineers Week Committee needs volunteer engineers from every field to give some of their time this fall and winter to introduce local young people at middle schools across the nation to a career in engineering through the National Engineers Week Future City Competition™. Since its founding in 1992, this educational program has made engineering come alive for tens of thousands of students. For more information on becoming a volunteer mentor, contact Carol Rieg, National Director, at (877) 636-9578, via e-mail at CRieg@futurecity.org, or visit www.futurecity.org and click on "Email Contact Form." Interested engineers will be put in touch with their area's regional coordinator.
