Collegiate Times

For the first time SMC Concrete, a construction contracting company, has awarded an engineering scholarship to an undergraduate student at Virginia Tech. Chris Houpos, a junior civil and environmental engineering major was the recipient this year.

The SMC Concrete scholarship is intended for those students in the civil engineering program who are directing their studies towards structural engineering. It will take care of Houpos' in-state tuition for the duration of his junior year and extends to him the offer of a paid internship for this summer. The offered internship with SMC Concrete will provide him with work experience in his field of engineering. If he accepts the job, the scholarship will continue into his senior year.

Houpos said that he was awarded the scholarship based on many factors. Impressive academic achievement and numerous extracurricular activities were dual aspects of Houpos' record that gained him, first, the attention of his advisor, and then, recognition from SMC Concrete. ?I'm very passionate about structural engineering,? Houpos said.

This past summer, Houpos traveled through China, visiting sites where structural engineering projects were taking place. Houpos explains he wanted to ?learn the cultural differences between Chinese and American engineering.? Most notably, his visits included the Great Wall at Badaling, a fairly new monorail system in Chongging and the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, known for being the largest dam in the world.

?Visiting these places put civil engineering into a greater perspective and has greatly motivated me in my academic career,? said Houpos.

Virginia Tech's department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was ranked as being in the top 15 of accredited civil engineering departments by a U.S. News and World Report Survey.

A construction subcontractor, SMC Concrete is based in Annandale, Va., and conducts ongoing projects throughout the Washington metropolitan area. The company recently completed the Library of Congress/National Audiovisual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Va., and the Fairfield Clarendon Residential in Arlington, Va.