BJ Graduates - for real

It's been so long since his journey through college began. After spending the first year of school at UW-Oshkosh in the pre-engineering program, it was already time to transfer into the engineering school at UW-Milwaukee. And after three years there, BJ's decided to work a co-op job for the city of Waukesha, then spent a summer working as an intern for the city of Kenosha, he still is a few credits shy from graduation. At the end of the co-op, he completed that last semester of schooling and luckily the city of Waukesha gave him a part-time position so he could make some extra cash during school. Anyway, 6 years later he is finally done. Working at the two city jobs gave him a broad understanding of new construction, constant repair of old construction, city government and politics, and government workers - both good and not so good. I've always said that whether an experience is good or bad, as long as you learned something, it was worthwhile. He learned alot. He learned about good managers and bad employees, contractors, developers, engineers and the work that they do, and how to work with them all. Unfortunately for the young, a little disillusionment comes with working. Especially when the dream and the reality are somewhat different. His experiences gave him a good start and now he has a job with a company whose goal is to be the largest construction company in the world. They are already extremely large, he had to interview in Vancouver, WA for a job assignment in Winterhaven, CA. He is smart and I am certain that success is well within his reach.

The graduation ceremony was a wonderful celebration with all the pomp and circumstance to be expected. It was a thrill to see him walk in with all the other graduates. We were so proud. As he headed across the stage to get his degree, we all screamed. Bailee, Lauren, and I were definitely out-shouted by Jeff. He was just beaming with excitement for his son. After the ceremony we went to Port of Hamburg to meet up with BJ's friends. A nice group of them stopped in. BJ decided that we would go for dinner at Celito Lindo's, a nice simple place with good Mexican food. We all had a great time drinking margaritas and congratulating him on his success.

BJ and The Order of the Engineers

Today we attended the Order of the Engineer ceremony as part of BJ's graduation and entry into his career as a civil engineer. This was a nice event held at UW-M and included all the engineering disciplines. Each discipline had a speaker that talked about their specialty and how important this event was as they enter into their area of expertise.

Part of the ceremony was to take the oath of the Obligation of the Engineer. It's a creed that is similar to the one taken by medical students that started with Hippocrates. It's not a membership to a club, it's intent is to foster an ethical code to uphold the standards and dignity of the engineering profession and to serve humanity by making the best use of earth's precious wealth.
It goes like this:
"As an Engineer, I pledge to practice integrity and fair dealing, tolerance and respect, and to uphold devotion to the standards and the dignity of my profession, conscious always that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve humanity by making the best use of Earth's precious wealth."

Each graduate is given a stainless steel ring that is meant to foster a spirit of pride and responsibility in the engineering profession, to bridge the gap between training and experience, and to present to the public a visible symbol identifying the engineer.

This was a wonderfully, intimate event with a small group of graduates. Each student was given a certificate of the event followed by hors d'oeuvres and punch. We are so proud of our boy.