Four St. Louis U. High students, with the help of science teacher Robyn Wellen, ventured down Highway 40 to Washington University last Saturday to take part in the Arch Grounds Engineering Competition. This competition, put on by the National Park Service, encouraged students to propose new renovations to the Old Courthouse. These renovations would eventually be proposed to a panel of civil and aerospace engineers around the area.

    SLUH competed against CBC, Gibault, and Troy Buchanan. Each school had to defend its proposal for where a new elevator should be placed in the Old Courthouse. 

    “Everyone was very professional and the presentations showcased the hard work that obviously went into the competition” said Wellen. 

    The atmosphere within Wash. U’s McKelvey School of Business was full of excitement. This program was built to push the students into creating solutions to complex problems, while providing a space for students to voice their ideas. 

    “Being able to present our solution that we worked hard on to a panel of judges in the field, and also being surrounded by other students in the metro area who are interested in engineering was a great experience” sophomore Luke Schall said. “However, the competition is a competition, and the atmosphere is a serious one with the different high schools competing to win, like a proposal for a real job”.

    Not only were students able to participate in the competition at Wash. U, they also received a tour of Wash. U’s business school and engineering facilities.

    “The facilities at Wash. U are very nice” said Wellen.

“My favorite part was definitely being at Washington University in their engineering school,” said Shall.

    SLUH’s STEM team was also able to meet with professionals in the engineering field, who helped to guide them throughout the competition. 

    “Before the teams presented, Assistant District Bridge Engineer, Ryan Semar PE, spoke about his job in engineering—maintaining the bridges in the area,” said Wellen.

    This experience at Wash. U ultimately led to creating a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie amongst the team members. This competition brought the students together in order to brainstorm and create new ideas and solutions. 

    “I feel that this experience has definitely built a camaraderie with our team, being able to work together on something that we are passionate about while still just enjoying the time. This project is meant for a group of people, and I feel that we learned from each other and got to know each other better,” said Shall.

    “Although we did not win the competition, I believe that we worked hard to develop a concept that solved the problem well and that we were proud of. We definitely learned from the experience on how to better develop a presentation for the competition next year, and more importantly we were exposed to a real life situation that engineers experience in their day to day lives” added Schall.