To me the most invaluable part of USC is the people—and the organizations with those people. There is so much hidden value by being involved with clubs.
College clubs are similar in some ways to high school ones, but I would argue that for the most part they are far different. For starters, you have to understand that the people involved in college organizations are eagerly passionate to contribute to the groups they join as most people want to gain high level experience in areas they want to begin working in. Pair that passion with access to labs, tools, competitions, and other university resources and clubs truly become a treasure chest of opportunities.
Some of my most enjoyable involvements have been USC Makers and USC American Society of Civil Engineers, so let me tell you a bit about them both.
USC Makers is a group determined to promote innovation with electronics, mechanics, and computer science. I am the only Civil Engineer in the club and for that reason I have used it as an opportunity to connect civil engineering across disciplines with electrical, mechanical, and computer science students. The club is split into ~10 groups of 5-7 people who form a project team each with a project manager.
I have been a project manager for the past two years, last year my team and I built a self cleaning solar panel that showcased solar tracking and energy efficiency. We had technical reviews to iterate changes throughout the year–one of which was with design engineers at our club sponsor, Tesla. This year my team and I are designing a kinetic sidewalk to harvest the energy of walking and store it in batteries. For a list of other cool projects that people have built check out the Makers website!
To get involved and connect with people in my department I joined in the American Society of Civil Engineers. USC ASCE is a pre-professional society that each school has their own chapter for—which is tied to the National American Society of Civil Engineers. All civil engineers, both in school and practicing in the field are able to join the National Society–which organizes conferences, government relations, and professional knowledge.
I am the Treasurer for our student chapter this year. Our primary goal outside of pre-professional meetings, company info sessions, and workshops is to compete in the regional design competition at the end of the year. We have 6 design teams (Steel bridge, Geowall, Concrete Canoe, Timber Strong, Environmental Design, and Transportation Design) that build their projects all year to compete against the 13 other Pacific Southwest student university chapters to take home the gold in April. To learn more about our student chapter check out the USC ASCE website!
This year I will be competing on the Steel Bridge Team! We build a model 20ft steel bridge that has to be able to carry 2500 pounds. We have to determine how to build it on site at the competition in a limited amount of time based on the materials we bring from our tests leading up to April. The judges then critique the structure, load test it, and grade it visually for aesthetics.
Through both of these involvements (and multiple others) I have met many of my good friends. I think college is truly about the people you meet and the experiences you have. Get as involved as you can in school; don’t take the opportunities and the inspired people around you for granted.
