FPA Staff Volunteers at Future City Competition
On Saturday, January 14th, Future City New Jersey hosted their Regional Competition at Rutgers University.
The Future City Competition is an international Middle School STEM Program that invites students to use the Engineering Design Process (EDP) to showcase their solutions to a citywide sustainability issue. This year’s challenge was to address climate change in their city. Each team was instructed to choose a specific climate change impact to research, and then they had to design both an innovative adaptation and a mitigation strategy to counter that chosen impact.
The annual competition invites students in grade 6-8 to participate, but it also is a great opportunity for teachers and industry professionals to volunteer their time and give back to the community. French & Parrello Associates (FPA) is proud to have had some of their own in attendance as mentors and judges. Sarah Steib, Manager of Bridges, served as a mentor to STEM students at the Oceanport Maple Place Middle School, and Michael Drobny, Manager of Highway & Traffic, served as a judge for the competition.
“It’s very rewarding to be able to give back to students in your community”, said Ms. Steib. “By being a mentor for Future City New Jersey, I’m able to pass on my own knowledge and experience to these students, while hopefully inspiring them to become engineers themselves in the future.”
Congratulations to all of the winners from this past weekend’s competition! To learn more about Future City New Jersey, click here or watch the short video below! Or to find a regional chapter near you, visit futurecity.org.
