News Detail

Nurturing the Next Generation

12/4/2018

A surprising statistic was shared with me recently at The ACI Concrete Convention and Exposition – Fall 2018 in Las Vegas, NV. There are now over 15,000 ACI student members. That is such a huge number! ACI had less than 1000 student members as recently as 2005, so it is clear that ACI membership is dramatically changing. The rapid growth of student membership speaks to the value that ACI offers the next generation of professionals who will lead ACI and the concrete industry over the coming decades.

My recent travels bore out the fact that student members are excited and motivated to be associated with ACI. In September, I joined the Reunión del Concreto/ASOCRETO in Cartagena, Colombia, where several hundred students had come to participate in a material design competition. The winning team received support to attend the ACI Convention – Spring 2019 in Québec City, QC, Canada. Over the past few years, ACI member Xiomara Sapon has provided critical leadership by spurring development of over 20 student chapters across Guatemala. These students showed up in large numbers and with a great sense of team spirit. Xiomara is a regular attendee at ACI conventions, and she is making an impact that will benefit ACI for years to come.

Student chapter team at the Encuentro Nacional de Capitulos Estudiantiles ACI event in Monterrey, Mexico

My South America travel continued to the IBRACON Congress in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, where all the ACI student chapters in Brazil joined for a large event. The students participated in a football competition (similar to the bowling ball competition) and also an egg-protection device competition. I was greeted so warmly by these students, and I was made to feel like a celebrity with all the requests for me to join in team photos.

In October, I joined the Encuentro Nacional de Capitulos Estudiantiles ACI in Monterrey, Mexico. This is a brand-new event that invites student chapters from all across Mexico to meet. The plan is to convene this gathering every year for the purpose of education, social programs, and concrete competitions. My highest compliments go out to the student organizers who conceived and executed a fabulous event. Again, the winning team was awarded support to attend the next ACI Convention in Québec City.

Students and ACI representatives at the competition during Reunión del Concreto/ASOCRETO in Cartagena, Colombia

Ramon Carrasquillo, FACI, was one of the invited speakers in Monterrey. Many of you may know that Ramon has been a strong and enthusiastic supporter of our ACI students over the years. In an e-mail following the Monterrey event, he encouraged me by saying: "The students are the future of ACI, and countries across Latin America do an excellent job with the student chapters. We need to show the students that ACI Presidents, professors, and professional engineers are people just like them and, if they work hard and are committed to excellence, the sky is the limit." I agree!

I am writing this memo as I travel through China and South Korea, where I see the same kind of enthusiasm for ACI and the future of concrete. I attended conferences in Beijing, Fuzhou, and Pyeongchang that were supported by teams of students from local universities. At the Korean Concrete Institute (KCI) Fall Convention in Pyeongchang, 11 university teams competed in a beam competition that targeted a 25 kN (5.6 kip) failure load. I also traveled to six universities and presented talks to student audiences. These students are uniformly excited about their studies and potential beyond their college years. I am sure I am safe in saying that over 1000 students have been involved in the activities along my travels in just September and October 2018. It is inspiring to see their optimism for the future.

Undergraduate engineering students in Beijing, China, in conversation with ACI President David Lange

I wanted to share these travel stories to remind our membership once again that ACI has tremendous opportunity to grow and expand its impact around the world. At ACI, we often say that our students are our future. I can assure you that our future is in good hands.

David A. Lange