Personal & Professional Growth at Civilitude
By the time you graduate high school, you have spent 13 years in education. After that, some individuals look forward to additional years to complete an undergraduate, master’s or doctorate degree. Here at Civilitude, we have a number of employees who are working towards receiving a higher degree! Four individuals in particular, Aisling, Justin, Sam and Leslie are each attending and will soon attend a respective graduate program. Civilitude prides itself on allowing growth to be one of our top priorities and values in our company. If our employees have the opportunity to grow professionally and personally, Civilitude will be more than proud to help them do so.
Our urban planner, Aisling, is set to begin her studies to receive her Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Development from the University of Southern California! While Aisling will move on from Civilitude and head to the west coast, we wish her the best in her endeavors. When asked what expectations she has for the program, Aisling broke down what she’s headed to do. “The first two years are focused on coursework and building a foundation for conducting planning research,” Aisling said. She will be a teaching assistant and do directed faculty research through USC’s transportation center, METRANS. In the latter half of the program, Aisling will complete her dissertation. Her plans for her future include one day going into academia and becoming a professor, or potentially working for a think-tank and doing research long term. “I have always wanted to be in a position where I utilize my skills most effectively to make a difference in planning and policy, and I think this is the area that I will excel in.”
Justin, one of our graduate engineers, is attending the Building, Energy and Environment Graduate Program at the University of Texas at Austin. Justin has had a positive experience completing his studies where he focuses on HVAC systems, heat transfers and building energy systems. When asked how completing his degree will contribute to his personal and professional growth, Justin answered with, “I think the growth I hope to see is knowledge, experience and understanding myself. An enhanced understanding of myself will allow me to gauge what I can do or what I might need to spend more time doing to improve myself.”
A second graduate engineer of ours is Sam, who will soon pursue a Master’s of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He too will attend the Building, Energy and Environment program and will focus on researching Indoor Air Quality. Sam envisions the program to help shape his future by connecting him with “more advanced concepts and research techniques including innovative methods of air quality measurement.” He aspires to “apply these novel techniques to enable more people to assess and understand the spaces in which they live and work.”
Last, but not least, our Operations Manager Leslie is in the process of obtaining her Master’s in Business Administration. Being in an MBA program has allowed Leslie to “interact with people from multiple fields” and has helped her “see things and problems from different perspectives.” While she works full time and goes to school, she still counts the experience of doing so as “very rewarding” and she has been able to “come across a problem at work and be able to apply what [she has] learned.”
At Civilitude everyone is pushed to seek out opportunities and growth. Each individual is expected to flourish anyway they can and Civilitude will do as much as possible in order to help do so!