As children almost everyone aspires to be someone great whether it is an astronaut, doctor, or firefighter. When I was a child I was no different. My dream came to me while building channels and pits out of mud in my family’s garden or building helicopters or spaceships with Lego’s I decided that I wanted to be an engineer. In high school when I took a class on CADD I revised my dream to either architecture or Civil Engineering because I wanted to help build and design things. I eventually chose Civil Engineering because I wanted to do something with building dams and bridges. I am currently a junior studying Civil Engineering at North Dakota State University. When I tell people that, many do not know what Civil Engineers actually do. Civil Engineering is actually a very broad major that encompasses many things like consulting, building and designing structures, constructing and designing transportation systems, and transporting water and waste water.

     Engineers have a job that may go unnoticed for many people. They make sure a product (motorcycle, new building, bridge, etc.) meets if not even exceeds safety standards, is economically efficient, and long lasting. Civil engineers in particular do this to bridges, roads, buildings, and water and waste water systems. The main interest of a civil engineer is safety because we do not want to build anything that would be a risk or danger to the public. One of their main values is ethical actions when it comes to everything they deal with. Engineers are expected to follow a code of ethics with the first and for most expectation being to look out for the good of mankind.

     People like to group things to help them understand the world around them. These groups or classes are called stereotypes. The stereo typical engineer is a man with poor communication skills therefore he has few friends, yet is on genius level intelligence. He usually cannot tell people what he is doing because he over uses jargon and does not simplify his thoughts. Engineers are realizing these things are a poor representation because they cannot get funded if the public is not given a valid reason that justifies the spending the projects will need. One physicist who has noticed this trend is Michio Kaku. He is attempting to change what people think of the sciences by informing the public of the benefits of research.

     The main purpose Civil Engineers have to the world is to make sure that their product is as safe as possible. They also have the duty to uphold the honor code through ethical work. The field needs people who are willing to be a mouth piece to the public. The more I learn about Civil Engineering the more glad I am that I chose it as my major and the more excited I am to graduate and start to put things into practice that I have learned in school. A small goal of mine is to make children want to be something great like a civil engineer.