An urban environment was non-negotiable during John Yang’s college search. It made sense for an aspiring civil engineer. Using Google Maps, Yang virtually explored cities across the United States, with Case Western Reserve University rising to the top of his list.

“As I learned more about the university and visited, I realized that CWRU was really my best-fit school, with its emphasis on academics, medium-sized student body, and beautiful campus,” said Yang.

Though he is from suburban South Brunswick, New Jersey, Yang took every opportunity to visit nearby New York City and Philadelphia. In his junior year of high school, he ventured to Chicago and was shocked by what he saw: the stark contrast between infrastructure in the city’s north and south sides.

Yang looked into the topic more and realized how factors such as redlining, automobiles and urban sprawl contributed to the differences in Chicago and other urban cities. 

“I realized that engineers and planners play a huge role in the success or failure of a community. I wanted to be a part of the profession that is solving some of these huge infrastructure challenges to leave our world and environment a better place than we found it,” he said.

Now a third-year student majoring in civil engineering at CWRU, Yang is learning what he can do to make that happen. And as a regular cyclist across Cleveland and neighboring communities and rider of the RTA system, he’s gained an appreciation for transportation engineering.

“I get to experience firsthand some of the successes and deficiencies of what we have today,” Yang said. “I have also gotten to see much more of the Greater Cleveland area than I would have otherwise.”

Learn more about how he’s working toward his goals with internships and involvement on campus.

1. What do you enjoy most about civil engineering?

My favorite part about studying civil engineering is that I can see what I’m learning about everywhere I go. Whether I’m riding my bike around the city, or sitting in a building, or at the lakefront, I see infrastructure everywhere, and I get excited when I can make connections to things I’ve learned through my engineering education.

For example, I often think about transportation design when I interact with streets as a pedestrian, bicyclist or transit rider. I think about structural engineering when I see bridges and buildings. When it comes to water, I think about the incredible amount of infrastructure we have in place to bring water from Lake Erie into our homes each day and to prevent flooding, all of which we often take for granted.

2. Can you tell me a bit about your involvement on campus?

On campus, I serve as the secretary of the CWRU student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). On campus, ASCE acts as an extension of the national society by connecting students to resources and opportunities to help them learn more about opportunities within the civil engineering profession and network with potential employers.

I’m also involved in the Steel Bridge team, which is a design team that is a subset of ASCE. We design and fabricate a 20-foot-long steel bridge every year that can hold over 2,000 pounds of weight, and compete with other colleges in the Great Lakes region for assembly time and structural efficiency.

I also am a teaching assistant for ENGR 200 (Statics and Strength of Materials), and also work for Undergraduate Admissions as a campus tour guide.

3. What have you enjoyed most about some of these experiences? Are there any standout moments?

My favorite part about being involved in ASCE and Steel Bridge is that I get to share my passion for civil engineering among a community of students who care about similar things. ASCE was an important way for me to learn about different career paths in engineering that I didn’t even know existed. For example, many bridge engineers have the chance to climb bridges via rope access, which is something that I didn’t know about until I was exposed to it at an ASCE meeting.

A highlight of my leadership experience in ASCE was having the chance to host a panel discussion featuring a few local transportation engineers. It was a great experience to discuss topics that I’m passionate about with a group of people with years of experience actually designing projects, and to share that with my peers.

As a tour guide, I have the chance to meet many prospective students who are going through the same daunting task of choosing a college. I enjoy sharing my story and love for CWRU with them and helping them see themselves as potential future CWRU students. 

4. Can you also share a bit about your internships or other experiential education opportunities? What have you learned from these experiences?

This summer, I worked as a transportation engineering intern in Cleveland at Michael Baker International. I had the chance to work on the design of two main projects. The first one is the Lorain Midway complete and green streets project for the City of Cleveland, which will transform two miles of Lorain Avenue on the West Side from W. 20th Street to W. 65th Street into a multimodal, accessible, and safe corridor to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, and drivers. As someone who has biked all around Cleveland, it was quite exciting for me to play a part in a project that I would be excited to use in the future once it is built.

The second project I worked on is the MetroHealth Line Bus Rapid Transit project for RTA. Four miles of West 25th Street from Detroit Avenue to State Road in Old Brooklyn will be modified to include dedicated bus lanes and signal improvements, as well as bus stop improvements to increase efficiency and safety for buses along one of RTA’s key bus routes. I contributed to the traffic data analysis that informed decisions about lane configurations at intersections, and also designed signage and pavement marking plans throughout the corridor. As someone who also rides RTA buses and trains, I was excited to see the transit improvements being made through this project, especially after regularly experiencing the success of the RTA HealthLine project as a local rider.

Last summer, I worked as a construction management intern at Gilbane Building Company, working on the Cleveland Clinic Innovation District project. The project is currently under construction at the intersection of E. 105th Street and Cedar Avenue, so you’ve likely seen the tower cranes at work as you walk on or near the CWRU campus. I joined the project right as it was beginning construction, and gained experience learning how construction projects are executed, and was actually quite surprised by the sheer amount of communication, coordination, and information being moved around by a huge project team to continue pushing the project along.

5. What do you hope to do in the future?

In the future, I hope to continue working on transformative transportation and infrastructure projects to continue making communities safer and more accessible to all.