Three ways my engineering firm changed everything I thought I knew about community
Bill Nguyen, PE, Garver Project Engineer - Austin, TX
In 2019, to celebrate its 100th anniversary, Garver sent 100 STEM kits to schools across a 12-state region as part of the Garver Chain Reaction Challenge. Their task? To build a Rube Goldberg-style chain reaction machine that would accomplish a menial task in a complicated way. In the end, after all the submissions had been judged, Austin’s Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) was declared the #GarverChainReaction Grand Champion.
But for as much a difference as the Challenge made in the lives of the students – the students of TSBVI, for example, used their prize money to purchase a woodworking bench and tools — that experience also sparked a chain reaction among those who organized the event as well. Here, Garver Transportation Engineer Bill Nguyen reflects on how that experience has since shaped his ideas about community — and his role in it.
I. Volunteer work empowers others:
Before participating in the Garver Chain Reaction Challenge, I’d heard about the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI), but I’d never been inside. On that day in September 2019, however, when we walked through the doors and had a chance to meet the students who built the Rube Goldberg machine, I saw a truly remarkable part of my community. We saw kids who were getting a chance to build something together — and they were doing it themselves.
On the day that we delivered the tools, I remember steadying the hand of a 16-year-old student and being struck by an idea: I was helping with the task, but I wasn’t doing it for them. I saw the same phenomenon repeated many times throughout that day. And then I saw it once more — in an equally profound and awe-inspiring way — when we partnered with TSVBI to make STEM kits for other schools for the blind and visually impaired. Those students had taken an empowering opportunity and used it empower others within their community. In doing so, they opened doors that would have otherwise been closed for others.
II. Every experience builds on another:
After we finished the Garver Chain Reaction Challenge, my team started brainstorming about how else we could partner with TSBVI. In 2020, we spoke with an instructor who teaches a class called Emerging Vocational Groups, which provides TSBVI students with life skills they can use after they’ve graduated.
During that conversation, we came up with an activity that would both help the kids develop their motor skills and provide a public good as well. Our idea was to provide the kids with hygiene products purchased in bulk — shampoo, sunscreen, lotion — and have them fill small, travel-sized bottles with those products. The idea was to produce 200 hygiene kits which Austin-based Garver employees could then distribute to the city’s homeless population. Although COVID-19 ultimately derailed the idea of having employees pass around the packets, we were still able to donate the products to The Other Ones Foundation — and we’re going to give it another go later this year.
III. Engineering can improve more than a community’s infrastructure:
As engineers, our projects — roads and bridges and so forth — are designed to serve many, many people. But it's not the sort of work that necessarily allows you to get to know the people who are using your product on a personal level. Working with GarverGives, the company’s corporate giving program, brings you closer to those people and makes it so much more personal.
When you take part in this sort of volunteer work, you start to think about your city in a different way. All of a sudden, you start to realize that it’s so much more than what you see on your daily commute and from the windows of your office. Volunteering, however, has also made me realize that there are so many people who want to be involved in programs like this. Whether it’s a volunteer event at TSBVI, or just bringing a few cans of beans to a canned food drive, these experiences give people a chance to feel part of something larger — they give them a chance to be part of a community.
About Bill
As a project engineer for Garver, Bill Nguyen, PE spends his days designing the roadways and bridges that keep Texans connected. Outside of the office, Bill is an avid volunteer who dedicated to uplifting his community through a variety of outlets.
About Garver
Founded in 1919, Garver is an employee-owned multi-disciplined engineering, planning, architectural, and environmental services firm with more than 800 employees across the United States. Offering a wide range of services focused on aviation, construction, facilities design, federal, survey, transportation, and water, Garver sits in the top 125 of the Engineering News-Record's prestigious Top 500 Design Firms list and is consistently recognized as a best firm to work for.
Details
June 21, 2021
Garver
Name: Anita Smith
Phone: 501-823-0204
Email: ACSmith@GarverUSA.com