Written by: Kristy Carter, AICP, Senior Project Manager
Just like at many companies and organizations, TPD’s DEI Committee has been exploring how we can develop a more diverse workforce. More recently, we’ve been wrestling with what the DEI Committee can do to develop a future pool of engineers and planners who want to do our type of work. According to a 2022 article from ACEC, the civil engineering profession is, “facing a workforce shortage that’s going to be exacerbated in the near future.” This is just to replace existing people in the civil engineering profession, in general. Even more are needed to fill the new jobs needed to keep up with expanded infrastructure funding, such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Fewer people are entering the civil engineering profession, in general, and even fewer in the transportation / traffic specialty. To quote the Seattle Times article linked below, “It’s a perfect storm situation.” Our profession needs to develop young people today, if we want a pool of people to work with us, tomorrow.
I am writing this just after our team finished up a round of public meetings regarding the Saluda Grade Trail (SGT) Rail to Trail Feasibility Study in the Carolinas. A true team effort, the SGT Feasibility Study has been a yearlong effort to provide direction to our client, Conserving Carolina, as it moves closer to purchasing the 31-mile rail corridor that is evenly split between North and South Carolina. The two meetings – one in each state – were well-attended, with over 200 people at each meeting.
A TPD team member’s daughter attended our second meeting in South Carolina. As our team member was getting ready to present, I started to wonder what it was like for her daughter to watch her mom in action; to see mom handle and charm a room of 200+ people – not all of whom are happy about the prospect of the SGT. So rather than just wonder, I asked the teenager if I could interview her to get her perspective.
We started with some warm-up questions. My interviewee is 14, so her job is being a teenager, which she thinks is doing a pretty good job at, even though it is hard sometimes (especially since she is starting high school this month). And, given the choice between being chased by a bear or an alligator, she would rather be chased by an alligator. According to her, alligators can only run in a straight line, so if she was being chased, she could zigzag and confuse the alligator. It’s also an advantage that alligators can’t climb trees. (Note: The accuracy of an alligator’s ability to only run in a straight line has not been fact-checked by the author.)
Once we got the important stuff out of the way, we shifted to the daughter’s thoughts about her mom’s work. I asked her to describe what her mom does for work, and she had a good answer, “She designs places, parks, trails and bike lanes. And she’s pretty good at it, for sure.” Then I asked her to answer what she thought was happening on the night of the meeting. Her assessment of why her mom needed to have the meeting was spot on. She said, “Mom needed to get the crowd’s opinions to see how to move forward and determine the next steps.” When I asked her what if felt like seeing her mom talk to a room of 200 people, she said, “It was pretty cool to see my mom do something like that. She was in control of the room and was telling people what they needed to hear. It was cool to see her in action.”
Before we wrapped up, I asked two final questions, “How is your mom changing the world through her work?” and “Who influenced your mom in a positive way?” Her perspective is that her mom is making a difference through the things she designs, like places for people who are riding bikes and walking, and by designing trails and signs that help people. As far as who positively influenced her mom, her first answer was her dad. Then she changed her answer to the people around her mom who told her she was good at this kind of work and that she should continue.
My experience watching the meeting and my following conversations with her got me thinking about our DEI work, and what more we can do to build a future pool of peers. I was a first-generation college student – I was one of those kids who had a limited understanding of what was possible for me when I first went to college. I didn’t have exposure to different career paths. I knew about teaching, so that is what I said I wanted to be (luckily, I quickly figured out that I didn’t belong there!). I didn’t know about engineering or even planning – a profession I fell into by accident – until long after college. Our student interviewee has absorbed her mom’s landscape architecture work because she’s had exposure. Who knows if she will enter a profession that will support our work; maybe she won’t. But she will know it’s a possibility to consider. So, the question becomes, how do we provide more kids with an expanded understanding of what is possible in career paths like engineering, planning, GIS, and landscape architecture? Members of the TPD community are doing things: we work with STEM programs in schools, take our kids to work, engage with college programs, mentor, and we leverage the might of our professional societies. But we still may need to do more. Personally, I have not done much. So maybe more of us (like me!) need to do a few small things. Need help knowing what to do? The articles linked below may provide some other ideas for us to consider.
Now I pose a question to YOU – my peers. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. I’d also love to celebrate what you are already doing. Reach out to continue the conversation!
