By Kimberly Leung, P.E., T.E., Western District President

While April was focused on visiting Sections and student chapters in the northern part of California, I spent most of May joining for a series of District student events hosted by the Riverside-San Bernardino, Washington, and Southern California sections. Having previously served as the Chair of the District’s Student Endowment Fund, now known as the Student Funding and Initiatives Committee Chair, for years before being elected to the District Board, I’ve always been passionate about students and young professional initiatives.

The first week of May, RSBITE held their Bob Crommelin Student Presentation Award Meeting in Ontario, CA. This was the first time the event was held in person again since 2019, and four local schools, which included Cal Poly Pomona, UC Riverside, UCLA, and USC, attended to present their research projects. Less than a week later, the Washington Section held their Annual Student Night in Seattle, WA with a large turnout of students from the University of Washington and Seattle University. While in Seattle, I also spent time on the UW campus with the ITE student chapter and their faculty advisor. I had the opportunity to share with them about the District’s student initiatives, including our MiteY mentorship program, Student Leadership Council, student awards, and career guidance resources. Later in May, ITE SoCal and OCTEC (Orange County Traffic Engineers Council) hosted their annual Student Night in Garden Grove, CA with presentations from students from Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, UC Irvine, UCLA, and USC. All these events allowed our students to showcase the work they have been doing for coursework, research, internships, senior capstone projects, or even the District’s data collection project, and it truly is impressive the complex topics these students are tackling in the transportation world. Many student chapters were even able to return to their schools with scholarships and financial support from their Sections. What was most exciting to me was to engage with students who came from schools that did not have a student chapter on campus yet but were excited about transportation and found these ITE events.

One of the most defining values of our District is our dedication to the next generation of young professionals. There are so many ITE professionals who genuinely want to support, mentor, and build relationships with our student members, and I appreciate all our Sections for their continuing support of our future transportation leaders. I expect a large turnout from our student members at the ITE Joint International and Western District Annual Meeting, and I hope that you take some time to meet them!