The Post's brand new Morgan State University – Student Chapter hosted its first event on Early Career Pathways and opportunities! Approximately 20 Morgan State University staff and students and over 10 professionals participated in the event during which five professionals from federal, public, and private sectors spoke about their career paths and experiences. Students were given the opportunity to ask questions and participate in the session as they heard from the following professionals:
Mary Foutz P.E., Chief of the Engineering Division for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District with over 30 years of federal service – and her colleagues Parris McGhee-Bey, D.Eng. and Marcus Davis, both Morgan State University Alumni;
Don Frazier is a fellow alum of Morgan State University and CEO of Iron Bear Technologies, a small business providing professional engineering services to members of the Federal Government and local municipalities within Maryland;
Tedd Wheeler is a combat-proven leader with a combined 35+ years of military service and private sector experience. He leads the Secure Environment Contracting strategic growth initiative at Leebcor Services, LLC;
Yosef Kebede, P.E., PMP, ENV SP, LEED AP is the Acting Bureau Chief of Water and Wastewater for the City of Baltimore; and
Sarah Babcock, P.E., PMP, Vice President, is an environmental engineer at EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc., PBC with 23 years of experience managing environmental projects and programs.
If you missed it and want to watch the recording, CLICK HERE!
Hats off to Morgan State University Student Chapter for a very successful first event!
Post participates in Future Cities Competition
Our post participated in the Mid Atlantic Future Cities competition on 22 January 2022!
Future Cities is a challenging engineering competition for middle school students where the kids design a city. They create a video presentation, Q&A, an essay, and a physical model. This year's theme was the circular economy and making a waste-free city. They had some great ideas this year on waste to energy, communication, renewable energy, and transportation. One team had drones delivering food that was ordered independently by a smart refrigerator!
Post members participated as judges of the various team deliverables. Judges included Ola Awosika, Randy Westfall, and Rob Scrafford. The Post is a sponsor of the competition and has participated for over a decade.
Holiday Wreath placing at cemeteries
It was a solemn day laying wreaths at two local cemeteries on December 18, 2021 volunteering for Wreaths Across America.
We had crews at Crownsville Veterans Cemetery and Loudon National Cemetery placing wreaths on the graves of veterans. The Post ended up sponsoring 60 wreaths! We also volunteer at these cemeteries on Memorial Day weekend putting out flags. Thanks to Andy Parker, Dierdre Crowl, and the Philanthropy Committee for coordinating this event! The Post had about 10 members participate across the two cemeteries. Check out our gallery page for pictures.
FY22 Federal Briefings Draw a Crowd!
About 350 people joined us in-person for our annual Federal Program Briefings program on 15 December 2021. Excellent presentations were given by participating agencies: U.S. Coast Guard, AFCEC, USACE Baltimore District, NGA, DIA, Johns Hopkins ARL, NSA, NAVFAC, and USAF.
If you didn't attend, you missed out on hearing the latest from the agencies. AFCEC spoke about the home stretch for construction of the $804M hangar for Air Force One at JB Andrews. NAVFAC spoke about upkeep for the master time clocks for the Navy as well as a war gaming center at Quantico. The Coast Guard is the largest landowner in DHS with an average building age of 43 years. NGA spoke about upcoming work on infrastructure for electric vehicles at their facilities. JHU designed an asteroid mission to protect earth from impact and they are planning a mission to Saturn's moon Titan in 2029. USACE spoke about the $194M in funds for small business last year.
In addition, we announced the winners of the scholarship program. Did you know that the Post gives out $30,000 in annual scholarships to engineering students? Most of the recipients (who were not taking finals) attended and gave a few words about what the scholarship means to them. In addition, we announced the formation of our new Morgan State University (MSU) Student Post. Their color guard opened the event in grand fashion.
Thanks go to Tedd Wheeler of Leebcor Services and LTC Geoffrey Kuhlmann, Deputy Commander of USACE Baltimore District for emceeing the event! We also need to recognize our Programs Director, Bill Burris of JB Andrews and his committee for leading coordination of this very successful event.
See pictures from the event on our gallery page HERE.
Annual Sporting Clays Shoot
October 21, 2021 – the Post held its Annual Sporting Clays Shoot at PG Trap & Skeet Center in Glenn Dale, MD with net proceeds going to the Post’s Student Scholarship fund.
On a beautiful fall morning, the event was attended by Post leadership as well as government and industry professionals, with folks traveling from MD, VA, DC, PA, and DE to attend. The setting is a traditional Sporting Clays course including (50) targets over (10) stations consisting of a variety of presentations and was noted as being challenging yet fair.
Participants included Beginner, Novice, and Advanced shooters who were randomly organized into squads to increase their networking opportunities. Each team was led by an experienced shooter to monitor safety and assist participants were needed. Seven teams competed for High Overall and Second Highest Score. While each shooter was in search of a trophy for High Individual, Second Highest Individual, and Highest Women’s score. A total of 14 trophies were awarded.
Coffee and donuts were offered as participants arrived and checked in, followed by a safety briefing and gun handling instructions from the club’s management team. With a delicious lunch of unlimited BBQ chicken, BBQ ribs, baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, and soft drinks.
A special “Thank You” was given to the organizing committee as well as the event Sponsors which included: Whiting-Turner Contracting, Froehling & Robertson Engineering, Bourn Environmental, Arium AE, KCI Technologies, Leebcor Services, Bernwards Mechanical, and TAI Engineering.
View photos on our GALLERY page HERE
MEGA Maryland draws record crowd!
MEGA Maryland was held -in person- on 13 October and included two inspiring and informative keynotes, local, State, and Federal agency panels, networking, matchmaking sessions, client panels, training sessions, a golf tournament, a wine tasting, not to mention many valuable webinars!
MEGA Maryland is the premier event for the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Our mission is to provide relevant and meaningful information inclusive of all members of the AEC industry with a focus on helping today’s small, minority, woman and veteran-owned businesses grow and thrive.
MEGA Maryland is organized by our Post in association with several other local professional associations. Thanks to Mindy Hinsley and Melissa Smith, the conference chairs for organizing this great event along with the countless other Post members who made this a success!
Cybersecurity with a Splash of Bourbon
We had an informative discussion of cyber resiliency on 14 September with Ryan Reusling, Technical Director from the Cybersecurity Directorate at NSA and Jonathan Hard, CEO of H2L Solutions. It is hard to make cybersecurity amusing, but these guys seemed to do it! Following the presentation, everyone sampled 9 different bourbons from Bookers to Whistle Pig to Old Forester to Sagamore Rye.
Thanks to RMF Engineering for hosting the event at their office and to Liz Krick from Harkins Builders for organizing this well attended event.
YM/USNA Family Baysox Game
The YMs and our USNA Student Post organized a family night at at Bowie Baysox game on 26 August. They ate well at the all you can eat buffet on the "party deck" at the stadium and watched our young Oriole Baysox players beat the Erie Seawolves.
Thanks to YM Greg Jackson of Potomac-Hudson Engineering for organizing this event and to John Osborne, our USNA Post Liaison for the Midshipmen participation!