Student Engineer of the Year

MARIETTA, Ga. | Nov 30, 2017

Professional organization honors civil engineering student

Kennesaw State University’s Chloe Enix has been named the 2018 Student Engineer of the Year by the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers, marking the second time in three years a Kennesaw State student has received top honors from the organization.

Enix, a senior studying civil engineering, said it’s “surreal” to be selected among her peers at other institutions across the state.

“To be name Student Engineer of the Year is a humbling experience, and I am so honored to have been chosen out of the many deserving students,” she said. “The award means I’m making a difference. Rather than settling, this award pushes me to do more.”

A Marietta native, Enix said she first felt the itch to study engineering as a middle school student. Her curiosity led her to become involved with the Formula One in Schools program, a global multidisciplinary challenge in which students ages 9 to 19 design, build and race wooden cars. The experience she received from that program steered her to attend Wheeler High School, where she took general engineering and drafting classes offered by the school’s Center for Advanced Studies magnet program.

Enix would later enroll at the former Southern Polytechnic State University, now Kennesaw State, to begin her undergraduate studies in civil engineering. She credits her professors for continuing to building upon her interests.

“It’s really the civil engineering professors who have made the difference at this school,” Enix said. “They’ve encouraged me to really want to know the material. It’s not just memorizing formulas. It’s very application based, which is very helpful for learning.”

Previously the president of the ASCE KSU chapter, Enix served as co-captain of the University’s Concrete Canoe team and remains the academic lead for all ASCE student competition reports. She has spent much of the fall semester as an intern at Arcadis, where she worked on traffic signal timing. After graduation, she would like to find a job in the field of geotechnical engineering.

She was nominated for the award by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Georgia chapter at the request of Nancy Turner, a senior lecturer of civil engineering in the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. All candidates were vetted by the Alabama Society of Professional Engineers.

“Chloe’s leadership skills are exemplary,” said Turner, the 2017 Georgia Engineer of the Year in Education. “I can attest that Chloe has been the most dedicated student to ASCE in all capacities, whether it’s as the leader of the student chapter, a leader on the competition team or as a leader in pursuing funding, student involvement and professional connections.”

Enix will be honored at the Georgia Engineering Awards ceremony on Feb. 24 at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta.

She is the first KSU student awarded Student Engineer of the Year since Valerie Washington in 2016. Also recognized that year were KSU’s Kurt Jacobson, Engineering Technology Student of the Year, and Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology Dean Tom Currin, Engineer of the Year.

– Travis Highfield

Photos by David Caselli

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The Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Kennesaw State University is the second largest engineering college in Georgia, serving more than 4,000 students. The College offers 20 undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and engineering technology led by industry-expert faculty in the university’s state-of-the-art facilities.

Student Engineer of the Year

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