Cal Poly ITE is Top Student Regional Chapter for Third Straight Year
Contact: Amy Hewes
805-756-6402; ahewes@calpoly.edu
SAN LUIS OBISPO — For the third year running, Cal Poly’s Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) club reigns as the best in the west. Cal Poly was awarded the Student Chapter of the Year award at the ITE Western District Annual Meeting held July 10 to 13 in Albuquerque, N.M.
The award was based on student groups’ annual reports, with Cal Poly’s submission ranked first out of 23 reports received from universities in the 13-state region.
“Overall, this year’s report reflected our interest in boosting the profession and not just our chapter,” said Krista Purser (Clayton, Calif.), chapter president. “We coordinated a nationwide teleconference with other campus’ leaders, for example, to discuss how to cultivate leadership, grow and sustain an organization and leverage events.”
Other 2015-16 Cal Poly ITE officers included Ashley Kim (Irvine, Calif.), vice president; Ryan Caldera (Irvine, Calif.) secretary; Edward Tang (Antioch, Calif.), treasurer; Nivedha Baskarapandian (Diamond Bar, Calif.), webmaster; Luis Descanzo (Milpitas, Calif.), historian; Amy Chin (Stockton, Calif.), professional coordinator; Erica Madrigal (Apple Valley, Calif.), social coordinator; Jonathan Howard (Murphys, Calif.), coordinator of the Transportation Engineering Student Project Area; Mark Howard (Concord, Calif.), marketing coordinator; and Kevin Carstens (Rocklin, Calif.), past president.
The chapter collected seven awards at the event, including:
- First place in the Collegiate Traffic Bowl, a “Jeopardy!”-style competition designed to test students’ knowledge of transportation engineering. (Team members included fourth-year student Jonathan Howard and graduate students Kim and Purser. Caldera, a fourth-year student, was an alternate.)
- Outstanding graduate student honors for Carstens, and outstanding undergraduate student honors for Kim.
- The Student Chapter Annual Meeting Award for the highest participation in the regional conference’s competitions, student sessions and student presentations.
- The Student Website Award — a first for the chapter — recognizing the effectiveness of the website’s design and communications. (The site was produced by Baskarapandian, webmaster; Descanzo, photographer; and Mark Howard, social media coordinator.)
The Cal Poly chapter will compete at the international level during ITE’s annual conference Aug. 14-17 in Anaheim, Calif.
The Institute of Transportation Engineers is an international association of nearly 17,000 transportation professionals and more than 140 student chapters.
Related links:
Cal Poly ITE Student Chapter
http://www.calpolyite.com/
Institute of Transportation Engineers
http://www.ite.org/
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