The Student Funding Initiatives Committee (SFIC) is proud to support the annual Connections Grant! This year, the ITE chapter at UC Davis was the proud recipient of the grant and has put together the following summary to highlight their experiences. The SFIC looks forward to continuing to support students to connect with one other in the future. See the following page for additional information – https://westernite.org/student-chapter-awards/connections-grant/

“On March 7th, students from ITE at UC Davis, Sacramento State ITE, and Sacramento State ASCE embarked on a journey to visit transportation offices within the greater Sacramento area.

For the first tour, 13 members from ITE at UC Davis were joined by 4 Sacramento State ITE students and 2 Sacramento State ASCE students at the Roseville Wood Rodgers office. On the drive there, we picked up donuts as breakfast for attending students as well as our hosts at Wood Rodgers. At the office we were greeted by Mark, who is Wood Rodger’s current president. Mark first told us about the company culture and answered some of our questions about Wood Rodgers before taking us on a tour and introducing us to employees from many different disciplines including transportation planning, transportation engineering, structures, water resources, environmental, geotechnical, surveying, city planning, and human resources. Afterwards, two employees, Mario (transportation planner) and Mike (transportation engineer), gave presentations about key projects that they have been working on.

The group then travelled to the Sacramento Mark Thomas office. Unfortunately, the two Sacramento State ASCE members had to leave, but the rest of the group continued on. Mark Thomas graciously provided lunch for our members which we enjoyed while listening to a presentation from a project manager named Aaron who talked about Mark Thomas, the work that they do, and some innovative active transportation projects that he has been working on recently. After that, two young professionals named Fabby and Meela gave a presentation on navigating the transition from student to professional. The presentations were then followed by a tour of the office. Although the office was fairly empty because most of the office works remotely on Friday, it was still insightful to see the work environment and talk with the employees that were working in person, which mostly consisted of interns and entry level engineers from Sacramento State University.

Following that, the group travelled to Rancho Cordova City Hall. Three of the ITE at UC Davis members had to leave, but two more Sacramento State ITE members were able to join for this tour. At Rancho Cordova City Hall we were greeted by a transportation planner (Drew) and engineer (Edgar) who gave a presentation about the history of Rancho Cordova, some exciting upcoming projects, and the differences between working at a large agency or company compared to a small agency, such as the city of Rancho Cordova. After that, the group was taken on a tour of the office highlighted by a conversation with the director and assistant director of public works.

Following our tour of the city of Rancho Cordova, we went to Sacramento State University where the Sacramento State ITE students took the UC Davis students on a tour of campus. Our day of office tours was then capped off by a visit to downtown Sacramento where we enjoyed ramen for dinner. Afterwards, we walked over to R Street, a Mark Thomas project that was talked about during their presentation. Members walked along the corridor and enjoyed the pedestrian infrastructure and historical relevance while indulging in ice cream from a nearby ice cream shop.

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