Supporting STEM:

Jacksonville Snapshot

Many Syska professionals across the U.S. participate in the ACE Mentor Program, a free afterschool program designed to attract high school students to careers in the A/E/C industry. Two of our most active mentors -- Giancarlo Thompson and Amanda Crist -- are based in Jacksonville. They work with engineering students at Creekside High School in St. John’s County, just south of the city. One of their roles is to help student teams prepare an ACE project, a 35-hour-long simulation that involves design and construction.

Giancarlo Thompson

Amanda Crist

This year one of the Creekside projects won second place in the national ACE competition in the “Strong + Sustainable” category!

Furthermore, two of the team members served as interns at the Jacksonville office last summer: Shaan Chudgar and Sydney Lynch joined us for the season as part of Creekside’s Engineering Science Academy program.

During their time in the office, they worked on active projects and viewed recorded training sessions from Syska’s Engineering Development Training program. At the end of the summer they created a presentation about their experience.

The Jacksonville office has been hosting interns from Creekside for the past three years and will host two more this summer. One of our past interns, Elyse Soracco, was named a 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholar.

We’re proud of the accomplishments of our interns, and we hope they’ll eventually pursue careers in A/E/C. It’s rewarding for us to give them support and encouragement. Through these programs, we are playing a small but important role in protecting the future of our industry.
Kevin Meyer, PE, associate principal in the Jacksonville office