Madison Moreno

Stacy Stuewe
English 1302
1/24/18

Civil Engineer

I’m interested in a career involving civil engineering which entails, “perform(ing)

engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of

building structures, and facilities... (which) includes architectural, structural, traffic, ocean, and

geo-technical engineers.” I plan on pursuing the more design and architectural side of this to

hopefully use my creativity to impact the communities around me.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the mean annual wage is $89,730, with the

lowest 10% being $53,470 and the top 90th percentile $132,880. Luckily, since I plan on staying

Texas, Texas has the second highest employment availability and a higher than national mean

annual wage of $99,810. Also the architectural, engineering, and related services industry has the

highest employment and wage out of the other civil engineering industries.

In order to become a civil engineer, you must obtain a bachelor’s degree in civil

engineering. I plan on finishing my degree at a University of Texas school and putting my focus

on the architectural and structural side of civil engineering. This should only take four years, but

if I receive an internship or there are opportunities to get some hand-on experience, I might

finish my bachelor’s in closer to five years. After I have been in my field for a while I plan on

furthering my education and perhaps obtaining a business degree in some form of

management, ,so I can oversee and maybe even lead construction projects. Whether this would
be actual construction management or a more design aspect will be determined on what I most

end up enjoying after I become an engineer.

Designing structures has always been a dream of mine since I was younger when I started

connecting my math skills with my art skills. In the tenth grade I started seeing if this was a

dream worth pursuing, by taking a basic architecture class that my high school provided. This is

where my dreams started changing and developing into more of an engineering passion due to

my teacher who opened up new ideas of what civil engineering could do apart from just

architecture. After this, my aspirations became more confirmed when I took the schools design

engineering and advanced engineering courses, where I was able to design and create things for

the school and learn different design software involving 2D and 3D designs.

Then I realized, a big part of my life is being able to help people, and I wanted to know

how to connect civil engineering to this part of myself. In an interview with the CEO of Bridges

to Prosperity Avery Bang, an inspirational civil engineering leader, the American Society of

Civil Engineers News asks questions about how to promote innovation and how to be successful

as a civil engineer. In this interview, what she mentioned about the humanitarian side of civil

engineering spoke the most to why I want to be a civil engineer and how I want to use those

skills.

Since I set my sights on civil engineering, I have always wanted to be able to help

impoverished societies, whether that be in the United States or in a third world country.

Engineers without Borders and Bridges to Prosperity are just some examples of organizations I

might want to work with in order to help people. I love how Bang simply says, “If you want to

help people go into engineering… there’s really a direct parallel there.” Not many people realize

how engineering a simple foot-bridge can change a community, but Avery Bang was able to
experience that first hand. Her testimony of how, still being in her twenty’s, she was able to build

up a non-profit surrounded by her skills as engineer really encourages me to figure out how to do

something similar.

Hopefully, being able to impact communities in life changing ways is what has led me to

my desire to become a civil engineer. It is more than just, “perform(ing) engineering duties in

planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures, and

facilities,” it is a career in which I plan to change the world.

 Works Cited

“17-2051 Civil Engineers.” Edited by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 31 Mar. 2017,

www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes172051.htm#(1).

ASCE, Staff of. “Interview with Avery L. Bang, CEO, Bridges To Prosperity.” ASCE News, American

Society of Civil Engineers News, 19 Dec. 2014, news.asce.org/interview-with-avery-l-bang-ceo-

bridges-to-prosperity/.