In recognition of National Engineers Week (EWeek) February 20-28, CMA will be highlighting some of our women engineers throughout the week!
Jennifer (Jen) Smith, P.E. is a senior engineer with CMA and works out of our Fort Lauderdale office. Jen started her career at CMA in 2005 as an intern and now has nearly 16 years of experience in civil engineering. We asked Jen to share some information about why she became an engineer.
Why I chose civil engineering: I was introduced to civil engineering in high school after the 9/11 tragedy. Our senior engineering class decided to build a memorial on campus. We designed and built a pentagon shaped seating area, and two towers with a flag pole. This memorial still stands today (photo below)! It was an honor to be involved in the creation of a historic landmark for our school and this project taught me the fundamentals of civil engineering.
Fun facts: I joined ASCE in college and was asked to row in the concrete canoe event because our university (FAU) didn’t have enough girls to participate in the conference. I continued to be involved with the society, serving as president of the student chapter, president twice at the branch level and currently serving as vice president of the Florida Section.
I especially love giving back to the community. Below is a photo of me speaking at a local high school STEM event. One student was so interested in civil engineering that she proceeded to study it then reached out to me a year later and became an intern in our Fort Lauderdale office.
I hope to continue inspiring others, including my daughters, to the beauty of civil engineering. https://www.nspe.org/
