Diversity In Action

USACE engineers are tackling today’s infrastructure issues

The Corps needs to hire 8,000 new employees. Minorities and women have been targeted to fill engineering and technical positions

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE, Washington, DC) wants you! With major construction continuing in New Orleans and federal stimulus money funding infrastructure projects elsewhere, the Corps needs to hire 8,000 new employees just to keep up. About 500 of them will come through the Corps’ federal student programs: the Student Educational Employment Program (STEP) and Student Career Experience Program (SCEP).

Specific positions are listed at www.usajobs.gov, the federal government’s official job site. On any given day, hundreds of openings are posted.

Diversity in the army has shifted over the past thirty years, reflecting changes in the general population. More soldiers are Hispanic, while black soldiers have declined proportionally.

A report issued by the U.S. Army in December 2008, “The changing profile of the army, 1985 to 2008,” states that “As the army has opened more career fields to women, women have responded by joining the army in record numbers, and significantly increasing their representation in the force.” The report also notes that while the army has hired more minorities and women among civilian employees, they remain overrepresented in lower-level jobs.

The army’s response was to assign Col Juan Fernandez to focus on minority hiring. As deputy chief of staff for reserve components, Fernandez, along with USACE and the U.S. Army Accessions Command, works closely with student chapters of minority professional organizations like SHPE, NSBE, SWE, LULAC, HENAAC, AISES and USHLI to find qualified candidates. He attends the conferences with a team of military and civilian recruiters who compile individual information on the spot and renew contacts later with specific job opportunities.

“I can see the fire in their eyes,” Fernandez says. “These minority students have the skills, the drive, the motivation and knowledge to become contributing citizens to the nation.”

USACE has $43 billion in projects to execute in 2010. Its engineers provide construction management in the design and building of quarters for military installations and provide all kinds of engineering and construction support. They oversee the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the nation’s inland waterways, coastal harbors and large dams constructed for flood control.

The Corps’ engineers regulate the nation’s waterways, issuing permits for public and private sector development. They’re responsible for water supply and environmental quality. They perform environmental remediation of Superfund sites for the Environmental Protection Agency. They also provide engineering management for other federal agencies, both in the U.S. and around the world.

Those who sign on for active duty can serve as regimental combat engineers. In battlefield roles, they may support allied troops’ mobility with roads and bridges or other construction work, or lay mines and create obstacles to impede enemy mobility.

USACE needs civilian employees with all kinds of engineering and technical skills. Geologists and hydro- geologists can get right to work, along with electrical, civil, industrial and mechanical engineers. Drafting skills and soil skills are also needed.

“Electrical and environmental engineers are like gold,” says Fernandez.

With nine divisional headquarters nationwide and forty-five districts across the U.S., Europe and Asia, every location has USACE staff to address local issues. All are active in their communities. College career planning offices are a good source of info for local projects and contacts.

USACE has paid positions in both STEP and SCEP. Educational opportunities are available to military and civilian employees who want to earn undergrad and grad degrees. Active duty personnel may attend the Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger or Sapper military schools.

Campus participation in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) leads to active duty service; college students can train to become army officers. ROTC cadets take elective leadership and military courses, and can receive scholarship benefits and a monthly stipend to help with college expenses for two years or more. Post-graduate active duty commitments can be as short as three years.

Fernandez notes that ROTC enrollment, which had been declining for several years, is up again. At the University of Puerto Rico’s Mayagüez campus, which is known for its excellent bilingual engineers, enrollment increased to nearly 500 students last year.

“If we are to continue to be a world leader, we have to overcome our deficiency in producing leaders in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math,” Fernandez says. “We provide the opportunities for these men and women to have a brighter future and a very productive career.”

There’s more information on training, careers and education at the army website www.goarmy.com and USACE’s site, www.usace.army.mil.

D/C