{"id":104599,"date":"2019-10-11T08:56:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T18:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=104599"},"modified":"2021-04-08T16:36:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T02:36:13","slug":"engineering-water-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/10\/11\/engineering-water-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Water conference and networking opportunities inspire students\u2019 career path"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"professor
From left, Roger Babcock and UH<\/abbr> Native Hawaiian engineering students, Kayson Smith-Bejgrowicz, Hiʻiaka<\/span> Jardine and Micah Tang who were presented certificates of completion for attending the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Attending a water environment conference and networking with industry leaders who are themselves minorities may have changed the educational focus, and possibly career paths, for three Native Hawaiian undergraduates.<\/p>\n

University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa civil engineering<\/a> students Hiʻiaka<\/span> Jardine<\/strong>, Kayson Smith-Bejgrowicz<\/strong> and Micah Tang<\/strong> attended the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference 2019 (WEFTEC<\/abbr>) in Chicago, in September on all expense-paid scholarships sponsored by the Water Environmental Federation and several national\/international companies called InFLOW<\/abbr> (Introducing Future Leaders to Opportunities in Water).<\/p>\n

“Meeting the most important people in the industry was a truly inspiring experience.” said Tang, “I am more than thrilled to know that I\u2019ve found my purpose in the world.”<\/p>\n

Tang is also part of UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s Bachelor\u2019s and Master\u2019s program (BAM<\/abbr>), a fast-track combined bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degree that was implemented in spring 2019.<\/p>\n

InFLOW<\/abbr> introduces underrepresented students to work in the water sector by industry leaders who are themselves minorities. The program also provides mentorship and a path for future career growth.<\/p>\n

The students also volunteered at a community service project at a Chicago school and toured the world\u2019s largest wastewater treatment plant.<\/p>\n

“This was only the second year of the five-day InFLOW<\/abbr> event and the first time that UH<\/abbr> students were invited. The UH<\/abbr> students had an amazing experience and represented the college very well. I expect to bring three more students to the 2020 program in New Orleans,” said UH<\/abbr> Professor Roger Babcock<\/strong>, who has attended WEFTEC<\/abbr> for more than 25 years and gave two technical presentations.<\/p>\n

WEFTEC<\/abbr> is the largest annual conference in the Americas with 25,000 attendees and more than 1,000 companies\/manufacturers in the exhibit halls.<\/p>\n

Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n

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WEFTEC<\/abbr> 2019 InFLOW<\/abbr> participants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was the first time students from UH<\/abbr> were invited to the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[179,182,1480,1466,9],"class_list":["post-104599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-engineering","tag-manoa-academic-innovation-engaged-learning","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104599"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104637,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104599\/revisions\/104637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}