2009 Scholarship Recipients with Met Section Scholarship Committee Chair Indhira Figuereo, Met Section Student Outreach Coordinator Gerarda Shields, and 2006 Scholarship Recipient Yurintzy Estrada

Met Section President Michael Lorczak opened the luncheon program by welcoming attendees to the event and speaking about the Section's scholarship program. Until taking on the role of president this year, he had served as the chair of the Scholarship Committee since its inception, helping to expand the program by increasing the number of scholarships that have been awarded each year and also raising the monetary value of each scholarship award. He also thanked AECOM, FST Engineers, Greenman-Pedersen, Haider Engineering, HAKS, Hardesty & Hanover, Hatch Mott MacDonald, HDR, Hirani Group, IH Engineers, Longi Engineering, Naik Consulting Group, STV, Weidlinger Associates for their support in sponsoring the event.

The guest speaker at the luncheon was Yurintzy Estrada, a recipient of a 2006 ASCE Met Section Scholarship. She now works as a structural engineer at AECOM Transportation in New York City and serves as the secretary of the Met Section's International Group. Yurintzy spoke about some of her experiences in giving back to the community through her involvement with the New York Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-NY), where she serves as the project lead of the chapter's initiative to develop a water supply system for a health care center in Matunda, Kenya. The ASCE Met Section and EWB-NY recently organized a joint fundraising event to help support this project.

Left to right: Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, Robert A. Dennison III, and Met Section President Michael Lorczak

The Michael N. Salgo Scholarship to the year's outstanding student was presented by Jeffrey Salgo to Allison Magnano of Columbia University. Met Section Scholarship Committee Chair Indhira Figuereo followed by presenting scholarship awards to Barry Cumberbatch of New York City College of Technology, Jafar Haider of City College of New York, Saskiha Hoyte of New York City College of Technology, and Mohammed Khan of the City College of New York.

During the event, the Met Section also honored Robert A. Dennison III, Chief Engineer of the New York State Department of Transportation and Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, President of MTA Capital Construction for their outstanding leadership as engineers in the metropolitan area. The awards were presented by Neal Forshner, Met Section Past President and founder of the Scholarship Luncheon. Both of the honorees briefly addressed the scholarship winners and described how civil engineering is an awe-inspiring field where you can see computer designs get constructed in the field and that if you do your job right you will be excited to go to work each day.