Winter 2023
NSPE Today: Outlook
Don’t Hesitate to Share Your Professional Engineering Story
By Britt Smith, P.E., F.NSPE, President 2022–23
Have you ever thought about how many people will ever need to hire an engineer? Probably not very many. But as engineers, we have a huge impact on their lives and in countless ways. For example, we all expect clean water to come out of the faucet, the lights to come on when we want, the bridge we cross on the way to work to be safe, the air we breathe to be clean, and the products we buy for our kids to be safe. When engineers do their best work, most people don’t even notice. Yet, as a profession we strive to make everyone’s life better.
The work of our profession by design affects the lives of many people—likely tens of thousands on a daily basis. In my case, I work in the public works department in the community that I reside and that means the decisions I make don’t just affect nameless strangers. The people in this community are my neighbors, my friends, and my family.
This brings to mind a time early in my career when my engineering work played a critical role in ensuring that a tragic event would hopefully never be repeated again. One night as I watched the evening news, I heard a report about a young child who drowned while swimming with his family in a stream near a low-water road crossing. The child was pulled by the current into a drainage pipe under the crossing.
Like most who saw the story, I was heartbroken for the loss of this child and and grieved for the family. I was so moved by this tragedy that I reached out to the county engineer the next morning to see if there was anything I could do to assist them since the county was my firm’s client. They told me they needed to eliminate the pipe as soon as possible. We were under contract that same day to work on a design of a lowwater bridge.
Over the next few weeks, we put in a lot of hours working on an accelerated schedule. During this time, I spoke with emergency responders who had been at the scene, and they shared what it was like to work such an unfortunate event. I’ve worked on bigger projects with more impact to my community, but one of the proudest days of my career was when I was standing on that completed low-water bridge just a few weeks later. My only wish was that we’d worked on this project before that family decided to take a swim on that hot summer afternoon. That project was many years ago but every time I’m in the area of that lonely road I think of that family’s loss.
Professional engineers often say that, "Our highest calling is the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare." That is very true but, without context, it can sound a bit cold and impersonal. We need to humanize that statement with the realization that our calling, as engineers, is to both improve and save lives. The fact that we get to make a real difference is what has drawn me to our profession and fuels the work that I do every day.
I often think we, as engineers, are hesitant to talk about our work in these terms. Perhaps this is because we feel the need to be humble or we simply don’t think of our work in that way. However, I believe that is exactly what we need to do as we explain to decision-makers that licensure is one of the ways our profession ensures that the people doing the work affecting their daily lives are qualified and ethically accountable. NSPE hopes to achieve this vision by advocating for strong licensure laws across the nation.
I shared one proud experience from my career where I hope I made a difference. I’d like to hear some of yours, so I challenge each of you to post a short story on social media about the project that makes you proud. Tell us about a time you were blessed with an opportunity to make others’ lives a little safer or a little better. Be sure to add the hashtag, #ProudPE and #IAMNSPE. I look forward to reading your story.
The NSPE Vision
A world where the public can be confident that engineering decisions affecting their lives are made by qualified and ethically accountable professionals.