John Cleary '09 returns to campus for PolyConnect lunch

John Cleary ’09 recently visited the Upper School to share his experiences as a civil engineer for the final PolyConnect lunch of the year. With an obvious passion for his profession, he walked students through the challenges and opportunities within the engineering field.
 
While attending Marquette University in Milwaukee, John experienced his first call toward civil engineering. He remembers seeing footage of a major bridge in Minnesota that collapsed and killed 28 people and injuring many more. The disaster was the result of a small but preventable engineering error. The bridge collapse has stuck with John ever since, which he shared with the students: “We take our job very seriously. Civil engineering is civilian engineering, and it is our job to make sure that people are safe.”
 
John began his journey with an internship at Osborne Architects in Glendale, Calif. It was there that he realized he was drawn less toward the theoretical process of architecture and more towared the real-world application that engineering allowed. He not only wanted to see things built, but he wanted it done in a sustainable and eco- conscious manner. His next college internship was at Lockwood, Andrews & Newman Inc., a prominent engineering firm in Texas. Although he continued to enjoy engineering, he wasn’t fond of sitting at a desk all day and craved being out in the field. John finally found his niche at his first post-college job at Pankow and has continued his work on many large-scale projects in his current position at DPR Construction as senior project engineer. He shared with the students photos of both completed projects, such as the San Francisco Public Safety Center, and those still in progress.
 
John’s current position in management allows him to be at the forefront of innovation, and he is excited to work toward advancing the industry. Virtual reality allows owners to walk around inside a building and give necessary feedback earlier on in the design process. Prefabrication and 3D scanning also provide cost-saving measures that have helped to expedite construction time. Even more recent technological advances, such as drones and exoskeletons, are gaining traction within the industry.   
 
John encouraged interested students to utilize the resources that Poly has to offer and to remember the large scope that engineering covers. He closed his talk by speaking to the impact that his time at Poly had on him: “Poly instills in you to give back. As civil engineers, we are giving back to the natural world.” 
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