ASCE's Civil Engineering Club™ initiative is an after school program that offers students an opportunity to learn more about the civil engineering field. In 2012, in an effort to bring this excciting opportunity to Philadelphia, the Philadelphia ASCE Younger Member Forum started the first Civil Engineering Club in Pennsylvania at the Chester A. Arthur School. At the time, it was one of only 10 programs recognized nationally, and the only program catering to middle school (6th through 8th grade) students.
The major goals of the club are to show local students the diversity within civil engineering, and to have all of the students understand that anyone can be an engineer if they want to be and are willing to work for it.
Meetings for the 2015 club were held bi-weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays after school and a variety of civil engineering topics were covered, including transportation, urban planning, geotechnical engineering, construction, environmental/water resources, and structures. Meetings featured a speaker giving a short presentation and answering any questions the students had, before leading a group activity that corresponded to the presentation material. Two field trips were also planned for the club. The year again concluded with a balsawood bridge building competition in which the students built scaled-down truss bridges that were weighed and load tested in order to determine the most efficient design.
Plans are in the works for next year's club. Reach out and get involved!
To learn more about how this club was started or to get involved in the upcoming club year, contact:
For an additional perspective on the creation and running of our Civil Engineering Club, Jesse Gormley, one of the founders of the Club, wrote an article about his experiences in 2013, which can be viewed here.
Thank you for viewing this page and please enjoy the galleries below from various working sessions and the video of the balsa wood bridge competition's Inaugral Awards Ceremony from 2013.
