Mid Valley Elementary students were invited to the PennDOT regional office in Dunmore, recently, to fuel their interest in engineering careers.
Two groups of students attended half-day sessions to learn more about civil engineering and tour the PennDOT District 4 office.
The students participated in activities that included presentations from engineers who discussed their path from middle school through college. Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor, Katie Drumheller, P.E., and Civil Engineer Bridges, Carmen Di Pietro, Jr., E.I.T., Master in Engineering, led a discussion on the required steps to become a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A question-and-answer period followed.
The students also took a tour of the PennDOT District 4 facilities which included the incident command center, traffic management center, and engineer workstations. The tour included a surprise site visit of the Interstate 84 "Twin Bridges" project. Wearing the PennDOT yellow vest and hard hat, the students looked in awe of the massive project that includes 3 new bridges, realignment of an exit leading to SR 435 and a trail that travels over a retired railroad bridge. Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor, Michael Walsh, led the groups on a tour of the project.
"It was a privilege to host the students from the Mid Valley School District. The students that who attended this event have expressed interest in future engineering careers, and we are happy to participate in growing that interest", said Assistant District Executive for Maintenance, Jonathan A. Eboli, P.E.
District 4 is developing a program to continue hosting students across all six counties in hopes of sparking interest in engineering and PennDOT as a whole.