Canton’s Steel Bridge Team Earned Their Shot at Nationals. Now It’s Our Turn.
Written by Chris Chambers, Development Officer for the Canton College Foundation.
As a Development Officer at SUNY Canton, I get to spend time in learning spaces most people don’t normally see. From embalming labs to state-of-the-art cybersecurity classrooms, to interrogation rooms, I’ve gotten to explore the School of Science, Health, and Criminal Justice and all its offerings. Recently, I have expanded my work into the Canino School of Engineering, but when I walked into a Civil Engineering class for the first time, I didn’t know what to expect. I come from a family of engineers, including two of the SUNY Canton variety, but I hadn’t really thought about what the classes would look like. I assumed that math would be happening, but when I came in on groups of students pounding concrete into oblivion, I thought I made a wrong turn into the campus’ not yet built (or approved or let alone even considered) “rage room.” But there was a method to the apparent madness, it turned out to be a variety of tests on concrete aggregate and mixture strength.
It was here that I first met Ciara McDougal, a second-year student in the Construction Management program who is a first-year member of the Steel Bridge Team and serves as one of the builders. As Ciara shared her experience, she explained that growing up just down the road in Macomb, SUNY Canton and Steel Bridge were natural fits. “I’ve always wanted to be in the construction field, and (Steel Bridge) has helped me learn to speak up and help our team solve challenges that we face as we practice,” McDougal said.
Ciara recently sat down with Zach Monroe for an episode of “The GOLD Standard” Podcast where you can learn more about her experience with the Steel Bridge Team. You can listen to the whole episode here on Spotify, YouTube or Apple
As I got a chance to talk more with Ciara about her experience on the Bridge Team, I saw a young person pour out her excitement of the intricacies of constructing a 20-foot bridge to cross the Rio Grande.
I saw that passion as Ciara talked about practicing with the build team. “We’d be in the lab practicing until 9pm most nights of the spring semester,” McDougal said. I recognized that look. Before I came to SUNY Canton, I spent seven years coaching high school speech and debate. I never participated in the activity during high school or in college, but I quickly saw how impactful it could be after my first tournament. One of my favorite things to see was when a student would struggle through their first performance as a freshman, but by the time they are a senior are commanding a room of the top competitors in the state.
Dr. Adrienne Rygel, Steel Bridge Team Advisor, echoed this sentiment, “It’s amazing to see the students grow over the course of the year from being hesitant to speak up to leading the charge on the design and build teams. This group has worked to overcome the challenges that this competition brings, to beat out the schools in our tough region and earn a spot at Nationals,” Rygel said. Rygel has been coaching the team over the past six years and is excited to see another group get the chance to attend the national competition. This year the team is traveling to El Paso, Texas to compete against the top engineering schools in the nation on May 22 and 23.
I remember during my final year of coaching, I had two students who had earned the right to compete at the National Tournament for Duo Interpretation. Speech and Debate was not a popular activity in a school where athletics dominated the time and attention of most of the populace. However, much to my surprise, the school organized a sendoff for these two students. Every student lined the halls, and the drumline led a procession through the school playing the fight song as these two students who poured so much time and energy into this activity marched through the halls, tears of joy in their eyes knowing that at that moment, everyone was in their corner cheering them on.
While we can’t call all the alumni back to campus and carry a 20-foot-long steel bridge through the halls of Nevaldine, we are trying to give Ciara and the rest of the team that same feeling my school gave to my former students. That’s why today I ask you to fill out the form below to cheer the team on from anywhere. It takes less than two minutes, but we are planning to pass along the well wishes of everyone to the team at the competition, so they know that everyone from SUNY Canton is in their corner cheering them on.
Chris Chambers
