Civil Engineer

Kristen Scudder is a junior at the University of Southern California studying civil engineering with an emphasis on architecture. She is a member of a dance company and teaches ballet.

Growing up, I’ve always liked architecture, but specifically, I’m into bridges. Watching the Springfield [Va.] interchange get built inspired me. They conquered one of the worst traffic problems in the nation. The bridges are huge. The fact that somebody had to design and fix that problem — I want to be that person. Right now, I’m on a steel bridge team at school. We’re designing a bridge for one of the national competitions for the American Society of Civil Engineers. You’re given certain conditions, and you have to use those parameters to make your design, and whatever can hold the most weight wins. You learn a lot through that process. It’s a team of 20 people, so it’s a big group. From an architectural aspect, whenever I go over bridges or underpasses or regular roads — things that seem pretty boring to most people — I see them in a different light. And that’s always really neat.

Watch eGFI’s interview with Kristen Scudder here:

Filed under: Meet More Students

Tags: Architecture, Civil Engineering