Dear ASCE Members:
Welcome to the start of our 2023 – 2024 year! With your continued support and exceptionally active participation, this past year we were able to successfully try out a few new events like Trivia and Coffee with Engineers; in addition to our oldies, but goodies, Adopt-A-Highway and Hands-On-Engineering. Our 2023 Steak Fry fund raiser was also a huge success, largely in part to our numerous sponsors! THANK YOU to all who came out – from the generous company sponsorships to the raffle entries and admission tickets, everything was a massive support for our yearly K-12 STEM Grants for local area teachers and University Scholarships for Kansas Civil Engineering schools. We are so grateful to have such an active and supportive engineering community in our area!
I’d also like to thank Scott Lindebak (Wichita Branch Past President) and Daniel Schrant (Kansas Section Past President) for their tireless efforts throughout their years of service. While Daniel & Scott continue to be resources as Past-Presidents, I can’t skimp on the effects of their many accomplishments throughout their 4-year term. Their leadership has brought a renewed collaboration between the Kansas Section and the Wichita Branch, championed several new member activities throughout the year, added the ASCE Conference in Wichita, revitalized our LinkedIn page, and created an awesome new ASCE KS website!
Keep an eye out for some of our upcoming fall events! Our first monthly meeting will be Wednesday, September 6th, Adopt-A-Highway is in October, Hands-On-Engineering on the first Saturday of each month at the Downtown Wichita Public Library, and we’ll shoot for a Trivia night sometime this fall too. These are all great opportunities for everyone to network, but especially any new hires wanting to get to know other engineers in our community in a fun way. Don’t forget that our K-12 STEM Grant applications release in September/October, so please keep your ear out for any teachers in the Wichita & Western Kansas area that would like to apply for a STEM-related activity of their choice. And lastly, our University Scholarship program, the R. Spencer Delamater, P.E. Scholarship, will be releasing applications in September and awarding one Civil Engineering student attending either Benedictine College, KU, or K-State.
I’m looking forward to getting to serve as President of the Wichita Branch this year and excited for another great year with the Wichita Engineering Community!
Layla McDaniel, P.E.
ASCE- Wichita Branch President