15 Oct 2024

Connecting the dots: Annual event educates girls about STEM opportunities

The U.S. has a long history of promoting science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, in public education going back to the late 19th century. While there have been major pushes for STEM in education since then, during the space race of the 1950s for example, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that STEM became part of the American vernacular. The early 2000s saw legislation boosting STEM educators, jobs and programs, alongside efforts to encourage more women and girls to pursue STEM and STEM-related occupations. According to the Society of Women Engineers, in 1980, women made up just 5% of architecture and engineering occupations, 20% of chemistry occupations, 26% of computer and mathematical occupations and 33% of biological scientists. In 2023, those numbers were 16.7%, 26.9%, 36% and 55%, respectively. While women have come a long way in STEM fields over the last few decades, there is still room for improvement.

5 Jul 2023

Training for Success and Safety

The U.S. Army is known for the rigorous basic combat training its military members go through, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also has training for its civilian men and women in uniform, park rangers. This weeklong training, Visitor Assistance Training, commonly known as VA Training, is conducted in Huntsville, Alabama for all permanent rangers to receive indefinite citation authority. Each district also provides VA Training to seasonal rangers, ranger trainees and permanent rangers who were unable to attend the training in Huntsville as the classes fill up quickly. These permanent rangers then receive temporary citation authority until they can attend the training in Huntsville. This June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District held its VA Training at Smithville Lake, in Smithville, Missouri. USACE employees from the Kansas City District, Tulsa District and Omaha District attended the training.

14 Jun 2023

Training with Industry: Teaching the next generation of leadership what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has to offer

Progress in a profession is often the result of an innovator identifying an issue, proposing a solution and working to accomplish that solution. That is just what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District did in 2012 when they collaborated with the Command and General Staff College, also known as the CGSC, hosted at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to develop a new educational program. CGSC is a joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational College, and was the perfect place for a program to teach more about USACE. At the time, the Kansas City District identified a need for greater recruitment of officers into USACE, as well as a need for increased understanding across the U.S. Army of what USACE could provide to the nation. The solution they proposed, spearheaded by then district commander Col. Anthony Hofmann, was Training with Industry, or TWI, an educational program administered by the Kansas City District. The program is now an annual elective in the CGSC curriculum. The first few years of the program, the class averaged about 10 to 15 students. This year, 31 students participated in TWI, including international students from partner nations. The 2023 course started on April 6 and ran through May 31. Although the need to recruit officers into USACE is still ongoing, the benefits from the program have not gone unnoticed.

14 Apr 2023

Lasting Impressions: Kansas City District establishes district-wide Summer Student Intern Program

As the school year winds down, many college students will be focused on finals and making plans for the summer. For those looking for professional experience in the form of a summer internship, there are seemingly endless options available. The difficult choice may not be if they should do a summer internship, but where and with whom. The Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hopes to attract some of these students with its newly established Summer Student Intern Program. There are separate intern programs within the Kansas City District, and although there have been summer interns in the past, 2023 will be the first year the program is district-wide. Previously, each division or section in the district oversaw their own summer intern program. Now, the program will be standardized so that all student interns have a similar experience.

26 Sep 2022

Learning alongside each other: Kansas City District ERDC-U graduates

Two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District employees recently graduated from a six-month program called ERDC University on Sept. 15, 2022, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, through the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. Jesseca Alexander, Kansas City District civil engineer, and Brandon Meinert, Kansas City District building information modeling program manager, were two of six graduates from the program.