Army Corps: STEM Career Conference (USA)

The Norfolk District brought out their best when they were invited to a career conference last Friday.

The team, Lt. Col. Robert Haupt, Kristen Donofrio, Capt. Antonio Pazos, Nicole Woodward and Josh Williams, led one of 48 sessions at Corporate Landing Middle School’s Second Annual STEM Career Conference, Sept. 28, where more than 800 sixth- and seventh-grade students experienced STEM projects, concepts, activities and information.

Woodward, a biologist with the Norfolk District, shared with the students her love of nature and how as a little kid she played outside all the time, hiking in the woods, taking water samples out of ditches with bugs crawling all around. “So when I went to college, I knew I wanted to be in the science field,” Woodward said.

She started out in biology, but actually wanted to be a doctor.

“Once I started taking classes and had a couple of internships, I started to see what I liked a little more and eventually ended up working for the Army Corps of Engineers,” Woodward said.

Woodward works in the district’s regulatory branch and explained to the students how she and her colleagues regulate impacts to waters and wetlands throughout the country.

“So whenever someone wants to build within a wetland, they have to first come through us for a permit,” Woodward said.

She showed the students examples of various projects requiring regulatory permits: shoreline protection, piers, dredging operations, and explained how these projects impact water quality, and why the Corps regulates them.

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Press Release, October 10, 2012