CEE Students Nearly Sweep Awards Ceremony

Dec. 10, 2018 - When the Orange County branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers held its 2018 History and Heritage/Student Scholarship Night last month in Newport Beach, it awarded five of the eight available scholarships to UC Irvine undergraduate students.

Raul Rodriguez won a $2,000 Gary Gilbert Memorial Scholarship, Haley Witzeman and Judy Beik each won $750 Environmental & Water Resources Institute Scholarships, Ani Sarkissian was the recipient of the $1,000 Geo-Institute Scholarship, and Darlyn Hernandez was awarded the $1,000 Transportation & Development Institute Scholarship.

UCI also won the Outstanding Student Chapter Award, along with a trophy and a $750 check.

The annual event, which brings seasoned professionals together with young engineers and college students in the local civil engineering community, included a company expo fair and social hour, as well as officer installations, presentations and a keynote speech.  

“I cannot express enough my excitement and pride on hearing the names of UCI students being called one after another to come onto the stage to accept their awards,” said Sunny Jiang, civil and environmental engineering department chair. “I know every one of them, and I know they are truly deserving. I am happy to see our students’ accomplishments being recognized by the professional society. It means that we are doing the right things in our educational program - we are providing the best prepared, well-balanced workforce to society.”

- Anna Lynn Spitzer