My Journey

I am from a small rural farming community. When I graduated from high school, the career options I knew of seemed limited, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I had always had a strong mathematical aptitude and a natural inclination for disassembling and fixing things, so naturally, many people suggested engineering as a potential career for me. That Fall, I enrolled in pre-engineering at Mississippi Delta Community College. After completing my freshman year, I transferred to Mississippi State University to study Petroleum Engineering. Then, after interning with Taylor Energy Company and working offshore on one of their gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, I realized that Petroleum Engineering required more travel than I was comfortable with. That's when I decided to change my major to Civil Engineering.

Internship Impact

Before the start of my junior year, I secured an internship with a local civil engineering and surveying company. I loved the type of work I experienced there, and that exposure solidified my decision to pursue a career in civil engineering and surveying. It also showed me the importance of securing both licensures to provide a complete package if I wanted to one day have my own firm. The individual who offered me that internship, G. Wayne Gardner, PE, PLS, became a vital mentor to others and me. Again, this internship opportunity solidified my commitment to pursuing a career in civil engineering and surveying.

Benefits of Internship Programs

Based on my positive experience with an internship and how it helped me discover my way through college to a career, I have made it a priority to hire and recruit high school and college interns every year. We believe that, by offering internships, we are making a small but important investment that pays off in the long run by developing a skilled workforce and increasing the labor pool for our industry. Because of this priority, Civil-Link has been successful in finding several long-term and highly productive employees. These hires have included engineers, CADD technicians, and surveyors, and they have come from all levels of education - from high school graduates and community college graduates with associate degrees to major university graduates with Bachelor of Science degrees. By providing practical experience, training, and positioning our interns for a potential career with us, we have seen our interns turn into valuable team members who are able to hit the ground running.

Expanding Career Awareness

In addition to offering internship programs, it is also crucial for young people to be aware of the various career possibilities available to them. In Desoto County, the Desoto County Economic Development Council (DCEDC) has been participating in an interactive career fair called “Pathways to Possibilities (P2P)” since 2018. This two-day event reaches approximately 3,000 8th graders in the county and provides them with an opportunity to get hands-on interactions with representatives and equipment across various career pathways.

Since that first year, Civil-Link has led the Engineering Pathway section of the P2P program by providing volunteers and activities to demonstrate common engineering and surveying principles such as traffic signals and signage, soils classification techniques, the basic use of survey equipment and technology, an interactive sand table depicting the illustration of contours, and certain effects of hydraulic principles visible in an acrylic flume. In 2022, two Civil-Link employees, Chase Dabbs, PE, and Jessica Simms, EI, who were involved in that year's Leadership Program, were part of the team that modified and expanded the effort to reach out to high school students in the area. Their team built on the success of the P2P initiative with a four-year program called “Bridging the Gap.” The program creates an environment for DeSoto County students to experience and build career opportunities with occupational assessments in the 9th grade, a career expo in the 10th grade, and job shadowing, internships, field trips, and mentorships in the 11th and 12th grades. The aim is to promote a qualified and skilled labor force for local businesses and industries. In 2022, the DCEDC implemented the Bridging the Gap program, bringing the P2P career fair and the Civil-Link internship ideas together.