The 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Workshop for Student Leaders (WSCL) was held in Miami, FL recently, and the student chapter officers from Clarkson were able to attend. Matthew Ducharme ‘25, Clarkson ASCE Student Chapter President, Kylie Nowicki ‘25, Clarkson ASCE Vice President, and Paige Cutler ‘25, Clarkson ASCE Media Manager made the trip.
Students from ASCE Regions 1, 2, 4, and 5, as well as Young Members and ASCE Professionals gathered together to network and attend workshops to better their leadership skills.
“For the students, we had the experience of attending workshops about leadership and how important our roles are, as well as different keys to success for our chapters. One of my favorite events was a collaboration with the Young Members. It was a very engaging event, but at the same time was an amazing networking opportunity,” Ducharme said.
There were also breakout sessions for all the different regions to meet their ASCE Governors and ASCE Section Members. This was a chance firsthand for ASCE Leadership to learn about different chapter successes and failures so they can do more for them. ASCE also invited the head of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Westpoint to speak.
“Something I learned more about is the surprisingly large amount of student representation present throughout the hierarchy of ASCE. This is something our chapter can take advantage of in the future if members want to get even more involved,” Ducharme said. “Overall, I have enjoyed the two conferences I have attended during my time as President (2023 and 2024). This opportunity is open to all members of ASCE if you run for an Executive Board position as a student (elections for 2025 will be after Thanksgiving). What we learned will be used to improve all events and meetings for Clarkson ASCE for another successful year.”
Nowicki said, “I had a great experience at the ASCE student chapter leaders conference. What I enjoy most about these conferences is meeting other civil engineering students and forming connections. It’s so exciting to see what other students are working on and hear about their experiences. One of the sessions in the conference focused on team building and communication skills in which each team broke into 2 groups: a design team and a build team. The design team had to create plans for a structure that the build team would build without being able to consult the designers. In this particular activity, I was paired with some younger members of ASCE and I was really excited when they let me take the lead. That really shows that everyone is there to build each other up and help each other out. Overall I had a great time and learned a lot about what we can do to improve our chapter at Clarkson.”
Cutler said, “While we were at this conference, we were able to attend multiple other events alongside other student chapter leaders from colleges along the East Coast, ASCE Young Members (ASCE members under the age of 35), and ASCE Section, Branch, and Institute Leaders. Many of the events focused on bettering our leadership skills, providing us with valuable knowledge and skills that we can now use at Clarkson with our student chapter. We had the opportunity to also collaborate with the other student leaders to share our struggles and successes as chapters and to provide ideas and support for each other. As digital Media Chair for CUASCE, I was able to discuss how we can better reach students on campus through methods like Instagram and Linkedin. There were many networking opportunities throughout the weekend, including general networking breaks and a social networking event in downtown Miami Friday night.”
The Workshop for Student Chapter Leaders (WSCL) is a series of annual training sessions for ASCE student chapter leaders to network, share ideas, meet society leaders, and learn how to help their chapter succeed.