Skip to main content

News / Press

SEAONC + Ignited’s AEC Week 2023: A Recap

Outreach Committee | Published on 8/1/2023
Our Outreach Committee hosted another great AEC Week with Ignited this June! Seaonc and Ignited partnered with SmithGroup, HENSEL PHELPS & KPFF to host 10 Middle and High School teachers, primarily from underserved schools, complete with lunches and a variety of interactive presentations and activities. A special thanks to the SEAONC DEI Endowment for helping to sponsor the event. This year’s AEC week centered around Sunnyvale Civic Hall which was a partnership project between our three industry hosts. The teachers got to tour through the Sunnyvale Civic Center Campus, and the architectural (SmithGroup), structural (KPFF) and construction (Hensel Phelps) teams shared many of the strategies implemented to achieve Net Zero Energy performance, better than code seismic performance, life cycle thinking and eventual LEED Platinum Certification. Our outreach committee also organized a fun Mola Structural Model activity during the week so the teachers could learn about structural behavior, and even tested their structures on a shake table!

By the end of the week, our teachers had learned from speakers from all sides of the AEC story, a range of industry support organizations including Taylor Devices, Cast Connex & Simpson Strong-tie, as well as our SE3 committee. Our 10 teachers left with lesson plans and their own MOLA kits, ready to engage their students. They will return to their classrooms prepared to help their students consider a range of careers they might have otherwise known nothing about! OC also received a number of requests for follow-up classroom visits from the teachers.

A few quotes from the week:
  • “It was probably the best PD I've had. The knowledge, applicability, time to create a lesson, really deep dive into a real- life application and connect real experiences was so incredibly unique and valuable. Learning how interpersonal skills and equity is tied into these careers was just so eye-opening and amazing!!”
  • “What made it impactful was getting to see in depth what professionals do. Being able to see HOW they do what they do allows me to reevaluate my lessons in ways that will allow students to experience more skills through classroom projects. We are always asked to make "real world authentic problems" for our students, but I don't have "real" experience to base it on – this gave me that basis. It was also quite helpful to know how I can help support students who have a variety of strengths to enter this professional field.”
  • “I really thoroughly appreciated the thought that went into coordinating this week. There was so much content in one week and I am glad there was not much fluff. The content was technical but also focused on equity. It meant so much to learn from those OUTSIDE of education and to feel valued by them.”
  • “It was also super-inspiring how many of the folks we met were influenced by teachers. Also useful: all the human skills needed even for engineering careers.”
A huge thank you to Maurisa Thompson from Ignited, our curriculum coach for the week, Daniel Carfora-Hale from SmithGroup, Andrew Cameron from Hensel Phelps, and David Rossi, Gerry Ip & Nick Miley from KPFF for helping organize this week and hosting our teachers. A special thank you to MOLA and Marcio Sequeira de Oliveira for providing modeling kits for all the teachers!

We are so grateful to all our presenters for the week including Kevin Moore from SGH, Nathan Canney from Taylor Devices,Wendy Allen from Simpson, Alex Cox from Cast Connex,Kaat Ceder & Priscilla Nguyen from Seaonc’s SE3 committee for being a part of the AEC week! We would also like to thankKaryn Fishman from Hensel Phelps, Rosa T. Sheng, Laura Allen, Todd Kohli, Peter Buffington, Elle Brauchle & Ryan Boe from SmithGroup and all our presenters from KPFF including Blake Dilsworth, Ben Biddick, Ryan Beaton, Taylor Schwartz, John-Michael Wong, Sylvia Petta, as well our MOLA model activity organizers Derek Avrit & Colin Ridgley. Finally, a shoutout to Emily Dilger from Ignited and our OC co-chairs Martina Sbicca and Leena Kibriya from KPFF for organizing another successful AEC week!

SEAONC Outreach is always looking for new members who enjoy connecting with their communities. Contact Leena & Kate at outreach@seaonc.org for more information or if you’d like to get involved.

Photos:

Our teachers group this year at Sunnyvale City Hall with Hensel Phelps

Teachers at KPFF

At KPFF during a MOLA model activity

KPFF hosted an office-wide lunch where the teachers got to interact with engineers around the office!


Our teachers visiting the SmithGroup offices on Architecture Host Day!

Structural Engineers Association

of Northern California


Managed by Paragon Events

7999 N Federal Hwy, Suite 400

Boca Raton, FL 33487

Phone: 415.974.5147

Email: office@seaonc.org