April 2020 - WTS NC Triangle News

WTS NC Triangle Express

April 2020

Hello to everyone working at home. At WTS NC Triangle, we're trying to make networking easier in this time of self-quarantining, with virtual social hours and an upcoming virtual job fair hosted by WTS International. All in-person events have been cancelled or postponed. Please follow us on social media to stay up-to-date on all our events, virtual and otherwise. Choose your favorite social media site: Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn or Instagram . If you're dealing with cabin fever, join us virtually at the next social event. Get your favorite beverage and talk with your colleagues about the challenges of this unique time or any other topic. We hope to see you soon.

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Work/Life Balance Breakfast Session

The NC Triangle chapter will hold a breakfast webinar on work/life balance from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. on May 12. Deb Kennedy, senior human resources business partner at Moffatt & Nichol will speak about how to provide and accept feedback effectively and constructively. Kennedy has more than 20 years in Employee and Organization Development and 15 years in the A/E/C industry. There are many opportunities in life for providing others with feedback, from commenting on the way that your colleague has carried out a task, to discussing your children's behavior with them. Register for the free (with optional $10 donation to the Food Bank of NC) webinar here .

Virtual Social Hours

The NC Triangle Chapter is holding virtual social hours weekly on Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. through Zoom. Registration is required in advance. Join us for the next one on April 30 or May 7. On April 30, we'll be discussing our favorite trinkets in our houses, and the session on May 7 will be a career path Q&A, where you can hear how different people landed in their current jobs.

Scholarship Award Winners

Congratulations to this year's WTS-NC Triangle Chapter scholarship recipients. These were presented to the recipients in February at the scholarship luncheon. Two of the recipients were:

Kaitlin Heatwole received the Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship. She received her master's degree in city and regional planning from UNC-Chapel Hill in May 2020. Prior to graduate studies, she worked in Iraq during the height of the ISIS conflict, managing $3-5 million annually in humanitarian relief and development programming. Through this experience, as well as her undergraduate degree in peacebuilding and development from Eastern Mennonite University, and more recent work with refugee resettlement in Durham, N.C., Kaitlin developed her interests in combining the effects of displacement and migration on vulnerable groups with community development and social justice. Her master's thesis research surveyed recently-arrived refugees in the Research Triangle about their transportation behaviors, identifying patterns between mode use and compounding barriers to accessibility with wages, employment, and language capacity over time.
McKenna Vernon received the Transportation YOU Scholarship. She is a Senior at Durham School of the Arts (DSA). Throughout her high school career, she worked as a summer camp counselor at Girl Scouts' Day Camp, served as Vice President of National Honor Society, and acted as Co-President of Octagon Club, DSA's community service organization. She aspires to major in Environmental Engineering and create accessible solutions to environmental issues in the world. In her spare time she enjoys playing piano and reading novels. McKenna's passion for helping others provides her with the motivation to excel in her academic endeavors.

Virtual Career Fair

WTS International will host a virtual Career Fair for engineering and science on April 28, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can register for free for the opportunity to connect with top employers looking to hire engineering and science professionals. Click here for a list of employers that will be represented at the fair.

Southeast Rail Forum

This event has been rescheduled for June 8-10 at the Sheraton in downtown Raleigh. Registration is still open, and the early-bird rate is available through May 8.

This event is jointly hosted by the Southeastern States, Federal Railroad Administration and the WTS NC Triangle Chapter. Sponsorship opportunities for the "Southeast Rail Forum: Ready to Build," (SRF) are still available. In addition to industry experts, local and state political leaders throughout the region have been, or will be, invited to speak. These will include Governors, Secretaries of Transportation, and State Legislators from the Southeast region. Get more information on how your firm can be represented at this event by clicking here.

NCDOT MOBI Awards Luncheon

T his event is hosted by NCDOT and co-hosted by the WTS NC Triangle Chapter and NC State's ITRE. Originally scheduled for April 1, this event is postponed to Aug. 5. Current registrations will be honored on the new date, and registrations are transferrable if you can no longer make it. Registration is still open through July 24.

Sponsorships are still open for this event. For more information on how your company can become a sponsor, click here .

Go Gala

The chapter's annu al silent auction and social hour fundraiser for the WTS Foundation was originally scheduled for May 14 and has been rescheduled for Aug. 20. At this event, the chapter announces the winners of its annual Transportation awards and auctions off many items with all proceeds going to the Foundation, which funds mentoring and scholarship programs for young women who are interested in the transportation field. Click here to see an updated Save the Date flyer.