2017 MATC Scholars Program: Ms. Elaine Armster

Larissa Sazama Author

11/03/2017 Added

12 Plays

Description

Ms. Elaine Armster, President of Linkscape360, discusses the "Future of the Transportation Workforce". For more information, please visit http://matc.unl.edu/education/scholars-program2017.php.

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[00:00:00.478]So, as you can see and from your program,
[00:00:02.780]we're gonna talk about the future
[00:00:04.499]of the transportation workforce,
[00:00:06.144]which as we heard from the speaker just a second ago,
[00:00:08.704]the reason that you all are here is to shape your future.
[00:00:14.698]So, it's my turn to be able to start the presentation on
[00:00:19.345]how we move that momentum, continue that momentum forward,
[00:00:23.032]but just a little about myself,
[00:00:25.040]anyone who comes before you to speak should share
[00:00:27.170]something about themselves so that you'll understand
[00:00:30.486]where their life experiences are professional experiences
[00:00:33.492]have brought them to this point,
[00:00:35.495]so I, like several in this room, spent some time with a DOT,
[00:00:41.898]so I have familiarity with our FHWA
[00:00:46.413]and transportation systems from having worked there.
[00:00:51.119]Now, that was after my ten years in the private sector
[00:00:55.709]with the natural gas company.
[00:00:57.870]I was hired by the largest natural gas company
[00:01:01.177]in North America to work on commercial industrial market,
[00:01:05.861]and from that perspective, my job was to work with
[00:01:08.542]developers who were building a lot of your franchises,
[00:01:12.299]who were building new industrial uses, providing school
[00:01:18.018]additions, building new schools, helping them to develop
[00:01:21.564]the plans for their natural gas service,
[00:01:23.910]and that body of work, both in the private
[00:01:26.240]and the public sector, is what I use now with Linkscape 360,
[00:01:31.181]which is a development planning firm
[00:01:34.071]and we work both in the public and private sector.
[00:01:37.143]So, when I was working with state DOT, my job was
[00:01:42.516]Special Projects Chief and I was, my team and I
[00:01:45.650]managed the non-motorized transportation programs,
[00:01:49.656]and you see some examples of those.
[00:01:51.811]Those are the bike ped programs, so we had
[00:01:54.825]a wonderful opportunity on behalf of FHWA
[00:01:59.869]and our state DOT to work on the street scapes.
[00:02:03.380]You'll see in Lincoln, a lot of the street furniture,
[00:02:06.372]you'll see the lighting.
[00:02:07.683]If you all, how many have trails in there community?
[00:02:10.281]Walking and biking trails?
[00:02:11.714]Those were some of the things that my team and I worked on
[00:02:14.883]and actually, this picture is endearing for me,
[00:02:18.392]not only because it's our 39th president and his wife,
[00:02:22.472]but it symbolizes the success when a whole community
[00:02:26.796]works together for a common goal and in this case,
[00:02:30.528]it was for the plain street scape project,
[00:02:33.977]and the whole community was involved.
[00:02:36.762]We received community input on the type of benches
[00:02:40.343]we should use, what kind of pavers we should put down
[00:02:43.333]to compliment the aesthetics of this historical city,
[00:02:46.696]and as well, the First Lady actually led the committee
[00:02:50.926]to pick out the street lamps and the street lights,
[00:02:54.361]so of course, with pedestrian lighting,
[00:02:56.704]those lights are lower than your highway lights,
[00:02:59.527]because we need to provide a foot candle light
[00:03:02.552]for those passengers who are on foot,
[00:03:05.801]and so it really was a whole community effort,
[00:03:09.596]and the ribbon cutting for that street scape project
[00:03:13.961]was actually planned and coordinated with the Carter's
[00:03:16.986]so that they would be there, they insisted upon being there,
[00:03:19.801]so that ribbon cutting was in December a few years ago,
[00:03:23.627]and it was followed by the Christmas parade,
[00:03:28.460]the holiday parade, so that was a lot of fun.
[00:03:31.831]But let's get started, everybody's now energized
[00:03:35.169]and fed and ready to go, so I have
[00:03:37.784]the first question for you as a did you know.
[00:03:42.061]Did you know, are you all ready for this?
[00:03:45.042](students chattering)
[00:03:46.476]Are you ready for this?
[00:03:47.891](students chattering)
[00:03:48.953]Are you ready for this?
[00:03:50.124](students chattering)
[00:03:51.414]Okay, did you know that congratulations are in order
[00:03:56.527]for our Mid-American Transportation Center?
[00:04:00.570]They are the recipients of five year,
[00:04:03.279]13.75 million dollar grant that was recently
[00:04:08.340]announced for District 7, let's give them a hand,
[00:04:11.481]that is pretty awesome!
[00:04:13.764](applause)
[00:04:15.173]Pretty awesome job.
[00:04:16.641]Pretty awesome.
[00:04:17.667]So, that means the great work of
[00:04:19.412]the Mid-American Transportation Center
[00:04:21.349]has now, further resources for it to continue and do
[00:04:25.510]the innovative research as well as those safety projects.
[00:04:31.040]So, we want to extend our congratulations
[00:04:34.213]from the 2017 class of scholars.
[00:04:38.552]So, let's talk about our presentation outline.
[00:04:40.815]We've gone through the introductions,
[00:04:42.591]and one of the things we wanna do,
[00:04:44.562]when you talk about the future of something,
[00:04:46.127]sometimes you have to take a look at the past
[00:04:48.092]in order to see those correlations,
[00:04:51.016]because remember, there is nothing new under the sun.
[00:04:57.762]So, what we're gonna do is take a quick look back 100
[00:05:02.274]years ago to try to see the validation of that statement,
[00:05:04.737]then we're gonna talk about a historic collaboration.
[00:05:08.205]One that entails secretaries of transportation, labor,
[00:05:14.395]and education and how with this historic joint
[00:05:18.207]collaborative study, we were able to, it was able to
[00:05:22.468]provide some results that I think all of you
[00:05:24.562]are gonna be interested in, particularly from where you
[00:05:26.688]are sitting right now as we're talking about the future.
[00:05:29.532]And then we're gonna be talking about positioning
[00:05:32.531]for success and afterwards, we'll do a Q and A.
[00:05:37.264]So, everybody ready?
[00:05:38.912](students chattering)
[00:05:40.199]Let's go.
[00:05:41.499]So, talking about the transportation workforce,
[00:05:43.800]the first I wanted to do was look at 100 years ago.
[00:05:46.713]The transportation industry provided jobs
[00:05:50.266]for the 19th century Americans.
[00:05:52.381]The successful cities had both skilled
[00:05:55.308]and semi-skilled workers and we're gonna
[00:05:58.485]take a look at some of the things
[00:06:00.604]they were doing transportation related,
[00:06:02.318]as well as we're gonna talk about something that
[00:06:04.857]you all think is new, but it actually is an old idea.
[00:06:10.507]Okay, how many people have heard of Uber?
[00:06:15.765]Raise your hand.
[00:06:17.113]Well, as we stated in our premise,
[00:06:20.651]there is nothing new under the sun.
[00:06:23.149]The first Uber concept were actually Jitney drivers,
[00:06:26.592]and this is a picture of what the Jitney looked like.
[00:06:32.202]A Jitney was historically a Model-T,
[00:06:34.976]and of course, with the introduction of the Model-T,
[00:06:38.670]it made cars available for working
[00:06:41.308]and farm class communities, and of course,
[00:06:44.975]capitalism has always been around,
[00:06:48.187]so some of these first owners of some of the
[00:06:51.631]first horseless carriages decided
[00:06:54.763]this will be a great idea to start a company.
[00:06:57.626]What if we use our brand new 1907 Model-T's
[00:07:04.840]to really pick up folks who are waiting
[00:07:08.159]on these antiquated street cars.
[00:07:10.704]And guess what they ended up doing?
[00:07:13.055]They ended up figuring out that if they charged a Jitney,
[00:07:15.908]which was five cents, and therefore the name
[00:07:18.465]of this first service, if they charged five cents a ride,
[00:07:23.146]which then was competitive with the street cars
[00:07:26.619]who were charging five cents, but guess what
[00:07:29.486]the advantage was over the Jitney versus the street car.
[00:07:33.018](students chattering)
[00:07:34.627]They were faster and they could go perhaps places
[00:07:38.566]the street car couldn't go, because they weren't
[00:07:41.071]relying upon tracks and to the chagrin of the street cars
[00:07:45.827]and the cities, the Jitney drivers would often times
[00:07:49.588]just drive a few paces ahead of the street car
[00:07:52.254]and pick up the fairs and be able to say,
[00:07:55.737]"Hey, you wanna wait on them or you wanna go with me?"
[00:07:58.392]So, they were able to do that and were
[00:08:00.910]very successful at doing so, and they were so successful
[00:08:06.095]that the cities became concerned,
[00:08:09.300]because the street cars were owned privately
[00:08:13.160]and those private owners were providing
[00:08:16.748]a percentage of their fares back to the city,
[00:08:19.495]so that meant that what?
[00:08:21.790]When the Jitney drivers were, they were doing so well,
[00:08:24.185]the cities were loosing revenue, correct?
[00:08:26.514]Okay, and so, they started having a conversation
[00:08:30.960]as to whether there should be a
[00:08:33.604]special license fee for the Jitney drivers,
[00:08:36.790]something in the tune of 50 to 70 dollars per year
[00:08:40.304]in order to make up for the loss of revenue.
[00:08:43.973]Have we heard any of those conversations in your cities,
[00:08:47.316]where they have Uber and some of the Uber drivers
[00:08:49.843]wanna go to the airport, where there are taxis,
[00:08:53.411]and some of them have become vocal, saying the Uber drivers,
[00:08:59.142]what are they saying about the
[00:09:00.921]Uber drivers in some of your cities?
[00:09:03.625](students chattering)
[00:09:05.458]They're taking all the revenue,
[00:09:06.826]they're getting there faster.
[00:09:08.115]Sometimes, the Uber car, a lot of the times,
[00:09:10.648]the Uber cars are cleaner than the taxis, exactly.
[00:09:15.763]You're getting to point A to point B,
[00:09:18.415]but our point here in this slide is that
[00:09:20.728]the concept of car based transportation is not new.
[00:09:29.049]Lyft and Uber had a predecessor and they were the Jitney's.
[00:09:32.787]Also, 100 years ago, as still today,
[00:09:38.394]you see we had the cargo and also we've got the rail yard,
[00:09:42.159]and I'm loving down at the hay market where we are,
[00:09:45.659]because we pass it, has anyone noticed those
[00:09:48.251]locomotives that are outside of the rail depot?
[00:09:51.192]That is an awesome, awesome capture of a major part
[00:09:57.334]of transportation history and as you can see
[00:10:00.224]from where that rail depot is located,
[00:10:03.130]and the businesses that were built around it,
[00:10:06.579]that actually is a lesson in city planning
[00:10:09.906]and how our cities evolved from being located
[00:10:13.071]near the rail stations, because the rail
[00:10:16.393]was one of the primary sources of transportation
[00:10:20.801]of goods and services, so all of the other
[00:10:23.888]extrinsic uses developed around there,
[00:10:27.335]and so even today, our CSX or Norfolk down in the south,
[00:10:31.551]are very important and integral parts
[00:10:37.156]of our transit and our transportation.
[00:10:41.408]Okay, we're laying the groundwork.
[00:10:43.249]Okay, then of course, again, we've always been
[00:10:46.411]an agricultural based country, so we have our roots there.
[00:10:51.216]You see some of the first roads that were built,
[00:10:54.016]and one of the things that was of concern is that
[00:10:57.043]how are we gonna take care of these roads?
[00:11:01.271]In 1891, New Jersey was the first state
[00:11:03.859]to actually start some sort of state aid,
[00:11:08.074]but there was resistance, there was some resistance
[00:11:11.722]to public funds being used for roads,
[00:11:15.362]because prior to the Model-T, the only people
[00:11:19.888]who had a car were what would you assume?
[00:11:23.046](students chattering)
[00:11:24.795]Were the wealthy, I'm sorry, what was the other one?
[00:11:28.288](students chattering)
[00:11:32.270](laughs) The bootleggers.
[00:11:35.053]Now, I can give a talk on bootlegging,
[00:11:37.013]because I've learned a lot about that
[00:11:38.849]through our Scenic Byway program in Georgia,
[00:11:41.121]so we'll have that talk if there's time remaining,
[00:11:44.301]but and that'll be fun as well, but in 1891,
[00:11:51.189]when the thought of if we're gonna have roads,
[00:11:54.947]because as you can see, if we can flip back here,
[00:11:57.776]the roads were in poor condition, so even owning a car
[00:12:02.222]meant dealing with some horrendous roads,
[00:12:06.887]and you can see on this slide here
[00:12:09.231]some of the first drawings of trying
[00:12:13.178]to get a suitable road system.
[00:12:15.050]Of course, now, Astro, which came around in 1914,
[00:12:18.757]gives us, provides some great guidance
[00:12:21.445]on the sewer, the drainage, how we need
[00:12:24.306]to have curb and gutter, and how we need
[00:12:26.614]to build our roads so that they are usable
[00:12:30.420]for its full economic life, but that was a concern
[00:12:33.153]back in the day and this is a favorite slide of mine,
[00:12:37.002]because it shows the ladies who were able
[00:12:40.103]to work on these cars, so of course,
[00:12:42.963]during our industrial era, the whole point is everyone
[00:12:47.842]was doing their part in order to make this transportation,
[00:12:51.994]the idea of transportation very sustainable.
[00:12:56.562]But, we've got to move on and we see here,
[00:12:59.649]I've been asked to provide a letter and this corridor path
[00:13:06.532]to you all, the 2017 scholars from
[00:13:09.820]this 100 year history to our present day.
[00:13:15.537]And this is where we are today, you can see here
[00:13:19.365]the upbeat music, we've got Bono going,
[00:13:22.165]and that's our beautiful day song,
[00:13:25.631]so we're gonna talk about how we have been able
[00:13:28.953]to use that foundation from 100 years ago
[00:13:33.762]to put us where we are today.
[00:13:36.538]Okay, so we've come a long way.
[00:13:40.379]We saw that ancient picture of how they went about
[00:13:44.543]trying to lay out roadways, very primitively
[00:13:49.286]compared to today, but now let's take a look
[00:13:52.658]at some of the street scaping and I would suggest
[00:13:55.196]with Statesboro being a college town,
[00:13:58.370]and those smaller than Lincoln,
[00:14:02.320]they still wanted to capture some of the aesthetics
[00:14:06.010]that you see and we'll say haymaker,
[00:14:08.683]'cause we're all familiar with that,
[00:14:10.433]since we're all living just right down the street.
[00:14:12.465]So, what are some of the first things you wanna do
[00:14:14.564]when you're looking to make an environmental space
[00:14:17.506]more people friendly, more bike and pedestrian friendly,
[00:14:21.852]what are some of the things you wanna include in that space
[00:14:24.329]to make it more adaptable for that method?
[00:14:28.318](students chattering)
[00:14:29.815]Wanna have bike lanes.
[00:14:31.141](students chattering)
[00:14:32.125]Water sidewalks.
[00:14:33.506](students chattering)
[00:14:34.890]You wanna have it ADA accessible, yes.
[00:14:37.205](students chattering)
[00:14:39.343]Lighting, you wanna have really good lighting.
[00:14:41.745](students chattering)
[00:14:44.467]Nice sitting areas.
[00:14:46.270]Thank you for all of those great suggestions,
[00:14:49.278]and you all were able to actually come up with
[00:14:51.772]what the scope of this street scape project is all about.
[00:14:55.327]Again, it's a college town, but in Georgia,
[00:14:58.319]and I'm sure in your states, with the funding,
[00:15:01.289]such as transportation enhancement funding,
[00:15:03.592]will you see projects like this where they've gone
[00:15:05.979]and put in these wide sidewalks,
[00:15:08.072]often times with the brick pavers,
[00:15:11.177]in order to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
[00:15:13.998]Trees are very important when you start
[00:15:16.437]speaking about planning for the public
[00:15:20.009]and wanting to improve quality of life, so of course,
[00:15:23.338]and then it needs to be an appropriate sized tree.
[00:15:26.542]Why does it need to be an appropriate sized tree
[00:15:28.777]if it's gonna be planted in the middle of a sidewalk?
[00:15:30.867](students chattering)
[00:15:32.810]Okay, don't wanna crack the sidewalk.
[00:15:39.116](students chattering)
[00:15:45.811]Mhmm, okay, well very good answers, all.
[00:15:50.526]And certainly, I would say, near the top,
[00:15:54.172]in the top three would be the root systems,
[00:15:57.208]and I know for us, my team worked on
[00:16:00.401]developing a pedestrian street guide,
[00:16:04.740]which was a resource, is a resource still,
[00:16:07.701]for designers when they are specifying
[00:16:11.367]what needs to go into projects.
[00:16:14.263]They can select the correct trees.
[00:16:17.504]They won't try to put a mighty oak on the sidewalk.
[00:16:21.102]Oaks have their place and they're beautiful trees,
[00:16:24.454]unfortunately, in the middle of a sidewalk
[00:16:28.030]is not the most ideal place for that oak.
[00:16:31.902]There are some other varieties that offer
[00:16:34.661]everything that you want for having trees there,
[00:16:38.679]but are less intrusive for the sidewalk, and then of course,
[00:16:43.435]we don't wanna damage the species either.
[00:16:46.337]Okay, benches, someone called out benches.
[00:16:49.612]If you've got pedestrians and bicyclists,
[00:16:53.537]they need to have resting spots,
[00:16:55.800]and because we're designing for all levels of ability,
[00:16:59.931]all of us, if we've been out walking for some time
[00:17:03.533]will need a place to land, and because you're
[00:17:07.243]inviting people to come out of their cars
[00:17:10.031]and to be able to come out on the sidewalks,
[00:17:13.299]also you're inviting them to read a book,
[00:17:15.600]you're inviting them to read the map of local attractions,
[00:17:19.879]decide where they wanna be, so if you're
[00:17:22.313]gonna do all that, then you're gonna need a bench.
[00:17:24.963]You're gonna need a resting spot to do so.
[00:17:26.975]And lighting, someone over on this side called out lighting.
[00:17:32.816]Do you see the lighting?
[00:17:35.811]Okay, so we've got the lighting posts and of course,
[00:17:39.120]because this is pedestrian and not highway,
[00:17:42.456]it can be a lot lower, correct?
[00:17:44.526]It doesn't have to loom over the street way,
[00:17:48.365]and the other thing about pedestrian lighting,
[00:17:50.670]keep this in mind, and I know the engineers in here
[00:17:53.401]are aware, pedestrian lighting has less foot candles
[00:17:59.985]than your highway lights, I mean, we don't need
[00:18:02.484]to glow into the eyes of the users
[00:18:05.510]and be a further distraction for them.
[00:18:10.349]So, this is a great example of how a community
[00:18:14.411]can go about adding amenities that really add
[00:18:18.312]to the quality of life, but yet have
[00:18:20.646]very practical purposes, very practical purposes.
[00:18:23.923]Okay, so that brings us to talk about this historical
[00:18:28.166]joint report which was a collaboration
[00:18:31.637]of education, transportation, and labor.
[00:18:34.904]Now, this report was completed right before,
[00:18:38.788]right at the end of the last administration,
[00:18:41.771]but this is the thing about science,
[00:18:45.229]the beauty of science is H20 will always be what?
[00:18:56.594](students chattering)
[00:18:58.902]It would be a necessity.
[00:19:00.130]H20 will always be water.
[00:19:02.041]It doesn't matter who, you know, who, what, when, or where.
[00:19:06.759]With science, that is a scientific fact,
[00:19:10.228]and so we can use the information from this study
[00:19:14.367]and make it applicable now, because it, like H20,
[00:19:19.465]reports the facts and we're able to use those facts
[00:19:23.835]to look at what we're wanting to look at now.
[00:19:27.632]One of the things that I want to start with saying,
[00:19:30.304]and again, as our last speaker was speaking of
[00:19:34.089]him having that wonderful opportunity
[00:19:36.848]to meet the Transportation Secretary, of course,
[00:19:39.385]all of our cabinet levels have secretaries.
[00:19:43.147]So, for this to be a collaboration, again,
[00:19:46.524]that's what makes this information so valuable,
[00:19:49.543]and still so poignant today is that
[00:19:52.807]it was able to use the resources that are available
[00:19:56.995]at very high levels to provide research
[00:19:58.607]that had not been refreshed in some time.
[00:20:01.812]One of its main summarized facts was that
[00:20:05.787]between 2012 and 2022, which you all are
[00:20:10.444]all in this range that will impact his number,
[00:20:13.684]there will be 417,000 new jobs
[00:20:17.019]added in the transportation field.
[00:20:19.769]Everyone should be cheering, because that means what?
[00:20:23.260]You all are in high demand and you all that are
[00:20:27.431]sitting here today will have jobs to go to.
[00:20:32.253]To take a look at some of the reflections
[00:20:34.414]that were given as this report was being released,
[00:20:36.573]we can go to the Department of Transportation that said,
[00:20:41.468]"Careers in the transportation industry can lift Americans
[00:20:44.654]into the middle class middle or help them stay there,
[00:20:47.973]and this report concludes that there will be
[00:20:50.863]more job opportunities in the future."
[00:20:53.801]And of course, we want to have a picture
[00:20:55.670]of our current Secretary of Transportation,
[00:20:58.302]Secretary ...
[00:21:00.904](students chattering)
[00:21:05.275]Chao.
[00:21:06.746]I'm looking to Dr. Rylett for ...
[00:21:08.631]And actually, I've heard it a lot of different ways,
[00:21:13.281]so I wanted to have you all to help me with that.
[00:21:15.206](students chattering)
[00:21:17.127]Chao, okay.
[00:21:18.318]And she was sworn in as our 18th Secretary of Transportation
[00:21:21.283]on January 31st and so, from all indications,
[00:21:26.356]there is gonna be a continuation of a lot of the programs
[00:21:32.552]that made the fact that we're gonna need
[00:21:35.293]417,000 more jobs in the near future,
[00:21:39.779]because we're gonna always need transportation.
[00:21:43.797]Water will always be H20.
[00:21:48.288]Okay, this photograph, does anyone
[00:21:50.971]recognize this photograph besides Dr. Larry?
[00:21:56.023](students chattering)
[00:21:57.824]Or know where this is from?
[00:21:59.783]Okay, well I will help you out.
[00:22:01.647]This is Kawasaki.
[00:22:05.124]I will invite you to do some research,
[00:22:08.122]because we are located currently
[00:22:09.840]in the headquarters of this rail car manufacturer
[00:22:13.742]and this, the note that's attached here
[00:22:17.313]that I called to your attention
[00:22:19.321]is that in February 2017, today, present time,
[00:22:24.272]we've celebrated Kawasaki making its 2,000th rail car.
[00:22:30.268]And some of you in this room may have been
[00:22:32.481]at the celebration for that.
[00:22:34.114]That's an incredible milestone and of course,
[00:22:37.494]as you can see, again, it emphasizes the fact
[00:22:41.728]that laborers involved and the importance of transit.
[00:22:46.764]There are plenty of cities across the United States
[00:22:50.713]that do not have appropriate transit systems
[00:22:55.554]and many of them are trying to retrofit,
[00:23:00.185]that is actually the case in
[00:23:02.056]the city where I currently live, Atlanta.
[00:23:04.485]We're trying our best in order to come up with
[00:23:08.472]an idea of retrofitting our rapid transit,
[00:23:12.190]because when it was built, we missed the mark
[00:23:15.128]in its placement and if you think transit
[00:23:18.573]is expensive initially, don't look at the price tag
[00:23:24.387]when you're trying to retrofit it after the fact.
[00:23:28.089]But we're very fortunate as Americans
[00:23:30.854]and as folks in the transportation industry
[00:23:33.304]to have companies like Kawasaki who are
[00:23:35.683]supporting our transportation workforce.
[00:23:38.999]And we move on to our Education Secretary.
[00:23:43.132]"In today's society, it's important that
[00:23:45.742]all of our students are well-equipped with knowledge
[00:23:48.798]and skills to compete in a global economy."
[00:23:51.607]That is the premise of us being here today.
[00:23:54.427]We are, and MATC is, contributing to your success
[00:24:02.246]in being able to compete in a global economy.
[00:24:05.137]The speakers that have been before you
[00:24:08.499]throughout these couple of days,
[00:24:10.683]the speakers that will continue to mentor you
[00:24:13.405]once you go back to your respective campuses,
[00:24:16.943]we're all making an investment in you.
[00:24:19.950]We're making an investment into your futures,
[00:24:22.756]because we need for you all to be ready to take the helm,
[00:24:26.291]to move transportation, and quite frankly,
[00:24:29.924]the entire global economy forward,
[00:24:32.551]and want to pay homage to our current
[00:24:35.914]Secretary of Education, Secretary Devos
[00:24:38.852]who is the 11th Secretary of Education.
[00:24:42.153]And that brings us to labor, 'cause again,
[00:24:45.545]this was historic, because this had never been done,
[00:24:48.247]three branches of government, three cabinet level branches
[00:24:50.920]coming together to provide this information for us.
[00:24:55.142]"Ensuring that America continues to lead the way
[00:24:58.357]in global economy means not only investing
[00:25:01.176]in infrastructure that allows us to move goods
[00:25:03.980]and keep up with global demand, but also,
[00:25:06.626]the skills, infrastructure to support the workforce."
[00:25:10.702]That is a most powerful statement, and
[00:25:15.022]one of the reasons I will tell you that statement
[00:25:17.896]is so powerful is because we became
[00:25:19.507]the giants in industry that we are
[00:25:22.288]because we had skill labor and a skill workforce and every
[00:25:26.545]developed company, country, every industrialized country,
[00:25:32.674]every country that's gonna be on the cutting edge
[00:25:36.033]of innovation must have a skill workforce.
[00:25:39.745]Last week, last week I was working with an engineering firm
[00:25:45.088]out of Coral Gables, Coral Gables, Florida,
[00:25:47.977]and we were in a small town among called Small Town USA,
[00:25:51.916]I'm gonna call it Appleville, just so I don't accidentally
[00:25:56.300]say its name, but we were in Appleville.
[00:25:58.194]Appleville has a beautiful downtown, it has
[00:26:03.904]a beautiful, beautiful residence, but it has a problem.
[00:26:07.136]The workforce, the base of this workforce is eradicating,
[00:26:12.792]so much so that some of the current manufacturers
[00:26:20.352]and businesses there are becoming very vocal
[00:26:22.759]because they cannot find anyone to replace
[00:26:26.521]the attrition of when they lose their workforce.
[00:26:32.247]One company which manufactures small goods said,
[00:26:38.498]"We have minimal requirements for our workforce,
[00:26:41.972]for our labor, yet for the eight positions
[00:26:45.813]that we need to keep fully staffed at all times,
[00:26:49.199]in two years, we've gone through 50 individuals
[00:26:53.399]trying to satisfy eight positions."
[00:26:56.285]Because for their light manufacturing, they may require
[00:27:01.105]some minimal, but at great level reading,
[00:27:04.953]some of their machines may require little but some
[00:27:09.283]know how in order to keep a production line going.
[00:27:13.144]They, quite frankly, have not, they've had to
[00:27:17.326]hire 50 people to try to satisfy
[00:27:20.230]eight postilions in two years, bless you.
[00:27:23.483]So, with that trend in mind, because you all
[00:27:30.200]are going to be the future leaders
[00:27:31.904]and for you all, when you were the managers,
[00:27:33.508]the supervisors, the vice presidents, the presidents,
[00:27:36.151]that's gonna be a concern for you,
[00:27:38.363]because it's lonely at the top if you don't have
[00:27:41.229]anybody that's gonna support you
[00:27:43.190]or if you're having to spend the time needed
[00:27:46.199]for you to provide executive leadership,
[00:27:49.101]but you're trying to make sure that everybody
[00:27:52.126]can read simple instructions on how to operate
[00:27:55.878]whatever process you all are doing and that you're leading.
[00:27:59.199]So, that is a big, that's a big problem.
[00:28:05.315]That is something that the Labor Secretary
[00:28:07.379]was correct in addressing is it doesn't matter
[00:28:10.451]if we've got money for the infrastructure
[00:28:12.576]if we don't have people that are available,
[00:28:15.341]educated, trained, and have the know-how
[00:28:18.110]to even things that you could buy with
[00:28:22.224]or for the infrastructure projects.
[00:28:26.766]So, we already talked about this number,
[00:28:29.322]the 417,000 job openings from 2012 to 2022,
[00:28:34.555]I can guarantee if your parents or guardians were in here,
[00:28:38.078]they'd be shouting, they'd be saying,
[00:28:40.359]"Great, that means that when he graduates,
[00:28:42.310]when she graduates, she's gonna get a job."
[00:28:45.225]So, that is great news and I know that you all
[00:28:48.433]appreciate it, because you wouldn't be here if you didn't.
[00:28:50.858]You've been working very hard.
[00:28:52.606]Let's see, how many freshmen do we have?
[00:28:56.101]We don't have any, okay, good.
[00:28:57.529]How many sophomores do we have?
[00:29:00.286]We've got a few sophomores.
[00:29:01.700]How many juniors do we have?
[00:29:03.572]Okay, how many seniors do we have?
[00:29:08.309]Excellent, excellent, you guys are to be commended,
[00:29:12.747]because guess what, there are jobs waiting for you.
[00:29:16.089]You've made a right choice in the career field
[00:29:20.872]that you've chosen to go after.
[00:29:22.734]But let's just talk briefly about
[00:29:24.470]the six sectors of transportation, and any surprises here?
[00:29:30.468]Everyone knew about the six sectors?
[00:29:32.761]So, inside of this report, they looked
[00:29:35.321]at these six sectors to look at the labor
[00:29:38.844]that was required to support each of these sectors
[00:29:41.861]and as you can see, if you had to say which sector
[00:29:45.973]perhaps had the largest percentage of older,
[00:29:50.411]of an older workforce, what would you say?
[00:29:53.210]And then we're gonna see how we do.
[00:29:55.097]What would you say?
[00:29:56.312](students chattering)
[00:29:59.086]I hear rail, what was that?
[00:30:00.898](students chattering)
[00:30:02.016]Highway construction.
[00:30:03.505](students chattering)
[00:30:04.571]The trucking.
[00:30:05.572]Great, great answers.
[00:30:07.363]Actually, it is the rail, it's the rail industry
[00:30:10.538]that has the highest, where the workforce
[00:30:13.524]inside that industry is the most aged.
[00:30:16.223]And that kinda makes sense if we take one step back,
[00:30:20.231]because the rail is one of the
[00:30:23.389]most historic transportation sectors,
[00:30:26.650]and in doing so, we look at the mindset
[00:30:30.531]of the transportation workforce
[00:30:32.553]and don't wanna spend too much time, you know,
[00:30:35.564]just kind of looking at what is trending now
[00:30:38.468]as I guess the stay ability of the workforce.
[00:30:42.961]Some of the trends that you see currently were not the
[00:30:46.306]trends when a lot of the railway workers were starting.
[00:30:50.046]When they started, you stayed somewhere for 25, 30, 40 years
[00:30:55.700]and as a matter of fact, just as a sidebar,
[00:30:58.645]my great grandfather retired from a rail company and he
[00:31:04.540]lived to be 101, he lived to be 101, and so, what happened,
[00:31:13.560]of course, he was on retirement for a lot of years.
[00:31:17.327]I think on his 95th birthday, and this is a wonderful story,
[00:31:21.680]it kinda makes me laugh every time I think about it,
[00:31:23.965]I think it was his 90th birthday,
[00:31:26.978]the rail headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida,
[00:31:31.344]'cause we lived in South Georgia,
[00:31:32.810]but the closest district office sent
[00:31:35.007]one of their employees there to wish him a happy birthday
[00:31:40.634]with a nice card and all of that.
[00:31:43.599]And it was, and so his wife was just,
[00:31:47.848]"Oh, they sent someone from Jacksonville
[00:31:49.747]to wish your grandfather a happy birthday."
[00:31:53.449]And we were just chuckling at home, because we were like,
[00:31:56.266]"Oh, they wanna see he was still alive."
[00:31:58.906](laughter)
[00:32:00.585]So, that was on his 90th birthday that they actually
[00:32:04.439]had a guy drive to Thomasville, Georgia
[00:32:07.437]with his birthday card and guess what?
[00:32:10.792]He was there 11 more years, so he was 101 when he passed,
[00:32:16.594]so I think he holds the record for that rail company
[00:32:20.110]being the longest living retiree.
[00:32:23.193]So, that just says (laughs), that really says a lot
[00:32:27.313]about just how our workforce trends have changed.
[00:32:33.286]It could be that for you all, you may, I don't know,
[00:32:35.943]you all may work at four, five different companies
[00:32:38.497]or more throughout the course of your career.
[00:32:44.352]Okay, again, we're talking about strengthening,
[00:32:47.740]skill training, and the career pathways
[00:32:50.472]across the transportation industry.
[00:32:52.273]We've looked at this first fact, which is wonderful,
[00:32:55.977]which is fabulous, that we're in a great job.
[00:32:59.412]Some, and we don't take that lightly,
[00:33:01.016]because you have classmates at your universities
[00:33:03.754]that may not have the same outlook as you.
[00:33:07.113]They may go through the same four years that you're
[00:33:11.481]going through and graduate and not be able to get a job.
[00:33:17.335]However, great news today, you will not be one of them.
[00:33:22.134]You're gonna have job offers.
[00:33:24.151]Let's look at what the growth rate.
[00:33:26.213]We're looking at employment growth rates
[00:33:27.810]of around 11 percent on all
[00:33:30.307]transportation sectors, more great news.
[00:33:33.567]Fast growth areas, any surprises here?
[00:33:35.993]Anyone surprised about some of the parts of the country
[00:33:39.894]that are experiencing fast growth
[00:33:42.665]and where some of the fastest growing sectors are?
[00:33:45.897]Any surprises?
[00:33:47.456]What else would you expect?
[00:33:49.295]What would you expect to be on this list
[00:33:51.757]that may have just missed the cutoff?
[00:33:53.964]What are some areas that you all know of
[00:33:55.896]that are also fast growing?
[00:33:58.692](students chattering)
[00:34:00.630]Seattle, okay.
[00:34:01.805](students chattering)
[00:34:03.411]Washington, D.C., okay.
[00:34:05.015](students chattering)
[00:34:07.310]Atlanta, yes, yes.
[00:34:12.248]Okay, excellent.
[00:34:14.544]Okay, retirement and attrition,
[00:34:17.061]because at some point, you all are gonna want to retire
[00:34:20.221]and then also, we're looking at the attrition rate,
[00:34:23.146]because many of you inside this room,
[00:34:25.907]your first job is gonna be the result
[00:34:28.456]of someone else retiring, that's how it was for me.
[00:34:31.156]I'll forever be indebted to Ellis Crowder.
[00:34:33.436]When Ellis retired, I moved into his job
[00:34:37.692]and started a fantastic career in the natural gas industry.
[00:34:42.173]And so you can see some more fantastic facts
[00:34:46.683]about how we're gonna be tracking in the future
[00:34:50.473]with retirement and attrition
[00:34:52.731]and I just wanna call attention to trucking,
[00:34:54.660]because you all were very adept and mentioned trucking.
[00:34:57.881]Trucking, again, we can never get rid of our trucks,
[00:35:02.928]and thank goodness that we have our truckers.
[00:35:05.643]Projected job growth and openings, two million jobs.
[00:35:10.639]Now, I will share something with you
[00:35:13.334]that one of my classmates shared with me,
[00:35:17.187]and this kinda is a consumer warning.
[00:35:19.079]About a few years ago, I went to
[00:35:22.535]the executive education class at Dartmouth.
[00:35:27.883]Dartmouth is an ivy league school
[00:35:30.026]located in Hanover, New Hampshire,
[00:35:34.776]and this was a great opportunity,
[00:35:37.080]brought in folks from all over the country
[00:35:40.322]who were doing executive education
[00:35:43.436]in their Tucks School of Business.
[00:35:45.779]So, one of the business owners there
[00:35:47.549]was a female who owned a trucking company,
[00:35:51.988]and we were doing report outs on something,
[00:35:54.695]but one of the points and I'm getting to the point,
[00:35:58.491]for the trucking, and this is my consumer, this is
[00:36:02.742]my consumer advice, she said, and I'm gonna say this low,
[00:36:07.599]"Be careful of Funyuns."
[00:36:13.392]Does anybody know what a Funyun is?
[00:36:15.169](students chattering)
[00:36:16.270]The chips.
[00:36:17.751]"Be careful of Funyuns."
[00:36:19.517]The chips, Funyuns, Funyun onion rings.
[00:36:22.535]This is why.
[00:36:24.076]She was like, "Funyuns are neither fun, nor onion rings,
[00:36:29.508]they're primarily not onion rings."
[00:36:31.649]So much so, when her company goes
[00:36:33.606]to pick up loads of Funyuns, they have to make sure
[00:36:36.965]that their truck, they have to guarantee that their truck
[00:36:41.258]is at a certain temperature or else they will explode.
[00:36:46.045]So, just know, I mean, and I haven't looked
[00:36:48.917]at a bag of Funyuns the same since she shared that.
[00:36:52.257]You know, they're sitting up there innocently enough,
[00:36:55.717]right at the counter, you know,
[00:36:58.021]just sitting there looking innocent,
[00:37:00.879]but yet, I've been warned to be careful of those Funyuns.
[00:37:05.592]So, I felt the duty and responsibility,
[00:37:07.438]particularly since we were talking about trucking,
[00:37:12.384]that just brought up that warning that she gave us.
[00:37:15.495]She was like, "You know, I can't even let
[00:37:18.027]some of my drivers drive that load of Funyuns,
[00:37:19.754]'cause they might get a little messy
[00:37:21.560]and it'll be a real mess and we've lost a load."
[00:37:25.861]But she said, she told us and now
[00:37:28.270]I'm sharing it with you all and you can choose
[00:37:30.274]to share with your friends if you see them
[00:37:31.946]go and just kinda grab that bag and you can let them know,
[00:37:35.334]there is nothing fun about Funyuns.
[00:37:39.332]Okay, the skill labor shortage, again,
[00:37:43.206]throughout this talk, we've been talking about
[00:37:46.244]how it is so necessary in order for us to move
[00:37:50.232]goods and services across the country, to be able to
[00:37:53.162]have a secure and a reliable transportation system,
[00:37:56.542]and those of you, I'm looking at the leaders
[00:37:59.699]for our transportation industry for all six sectors.
[00:38:03.043]I'm looking at you right now.
[00:38:04.802]I'm looking at the leaders who will be responsible
[00:38:07.867]and fill those gaps to ensure that we don't have
[00:38:11.595]a labor shortage, to ensure that we remain as high as we are
[00:38:17.566]as a global economy leader, because you'll be the ones
[00:38:21.439]responsible for the staffs of people
[00:38:24.091]that'll be building the infrastructure
[00:38:26.216]that is necessary to continue to keep us rolling,
[00:38:29.218]literally to keep us rolling through these six sectors.
[00:38:33.535]And want you to feel very proud of this fact,
[00:38:36.976]the number four point is number four on this slide,
[00:38:40.791]but should be number one in your hearts,
[00:38:43.114]the fact that you are in demand.
[00:38:46.979]You are in demand.
[00:38:49.747]So, we wanna further again, just show
[00:38:51.964]what the percentages look like.
[00:38:54.724]We won't spend a lot of time looking further,
[00:38:57.025]but we have it here and these slides
[00:38:58.816]will be made available for you, but again
[00:39:01.142]just to make the emphasis about the trucking,
[00:39:04.894]that is gonna show some very significant
[00:39:08.340]stabilized growth and that is important for all of us,
[00:39:13.294]because when the trucks roll, then
[00:39:16.253]America's being taken care of.
[00:39:18.617]Again, we've got an overlay looking at the United States
[00:39:23.615]as a whole, showing us where
[00:39:26.306]this growth is projected to be.
[00:39:27.962]You all had some further insights,
[00:39:30.300]based upon what you see trending in your area,
[00:39:33.852]about some of the growth, and to know
[00:39:36.589]that at the end of the day,
[00:39:38.404]we are still positioned,
[00:39:40.168]those of you who are in this room who are sitting here,
[00:39:42.559]the sophomores, juniors, seniors,
[00:39:45.443]you guys are in awesome, bless you.
[00:39:47.846]You guys are in awesome shape to capitalize
[00:39:51.375]on these 417,000 new jobs that are coming our way.
[00:39:55.908]What's this?
[00:39:57.161]Oh my goodness, looks like there's ...
[00:39:59.032]Oh my goodness, oh we got a congratulate Dr. Larry again.
[00:40:01.435]Oh, Dr. Larry did something else ...
[00:40:03.184]You're just everywhere, you're all over the presentation.
[00:40:06.267]Oh my gosh.
[00:40:08.726]Between baseball and Dr. Larry,
[00:40:10.612]let's see can we get through the presentation.
[00:40:13.098]Okay, but just to let you see again
[00:40:15.646]about what some of the requirements are of our jobs,
[00:40:19.516]that's always a really good thing to know
[00:40:22.216]as you're going into your job search,
[00:40:25.071]what the requirements are, but one thing
[00:40:28.485]I'll call your attention to and this was at this study,
[00:40:32.492]I mean, we can do really well.
[00:40:36.160]Okay, great, excellent.
[00:40:38.140](students chattering)
[00:40:43.058]Well, you know, I'm talking about the industry in general,
[00:40:47.137]however, as a sidebar, I would say Linkscape
[00:40:52.355]and companies like Linkscape on the private sector side,
[00:40:56.170]we need to have valuable talent.
[00:40:58.928]We need to have the talent to be able to do
[00:41:02.277]the things that support industry and the private sector,
[00:41:07.213]so when you're talented, you actually
[00:41:10.207]can make your personal selection where you'd like to be
[00:41:14.532]on the private, and you can do both.
[00:41:17.464]Lot of times, you're able to do both
[00:41:19.140]at some point in your career, but yes,
[00:41:20.924]and the thing about it, the cost, you know,
[00:41:24.533]one of the adages about if you think education
[00:41:27.941]is expensive, then try the opposite.
[00:41:31.445]If you think it's expensive to get great talent,
[00:41:33.876]then wait until you measure the cost of having poor talent.
[00:41:36.905]So, companies that get it and industries that get it,
[00:41:42.002]they understand that essentially,
[00:41:44.351]you get what you pay for a lot of times.
[00:41:46.492]Of course, a lot of times, as entry-level,
[00:41:49.936]that doesn't necessarily say your first job
[00:41:52.600]is gonna be six figures, but what you're gaining in that
[00:41:54.437]is the experience to be able to command larger wages.
[00:42:01.654]So, one of the things that we need to do,
[00:42:04.459]and I believe I've heard speakers make this point,
[00:42:06.984]always capitalize on any experience
[00:42:10.950]given to you to work your best.
[00:42:13.048]You work as if you're gonna become the president
[00:42:16.934]and CEO of that company, because it may not be that company,
[00:42:20.685]but it may be another, and so, because we all
[00:42:23.951]have our own personal work ethic,
[00:42:26.902]we always want to execute that
[00:42:28.808]whenever we're working on a job, because those skills,
[00:42:33.952]everything that you learn no one can ever take away, they're
[00:42:37.968]always gonna be transferrable at your next opportunity.
[00:42:41.492]Okay, so one of the things I wanna try
[00:42:45.796]to start to bring us in on are some of the new trends.
[00:42:49.510]How many people have heard of Aerotropolis?
[00:42:53.656]Or know what an Aerotropolis is?
[00:42:57.392]Okay, well, let's share with the class
[00:42:59.023]what an Aerotropolis is.
[00:43:01.188](student chattering)
[00:43:08.565]Uh-huh.
[00:43:11.869]Bingo, yes, an airport city.
[00:43:15.400]You did a, thank you so much for sharing that.
[00:43:17.638]And Aerotropolis's, is that a word, Dr. Larry?
[00:43:23.892]Did I just invent something?
[00:43:25.288]Aerotropolis's, you can see those a lot
[00:43:28.681]in Europe and actually, if you come to Atlanta,
[00:43:32.042]if you see a lot of the growth,
[00:43:34.200]you see we're in the process
[00:43:35.967]of developing the Atlanta Aerotropolis.
[00:43:38.219]And so, it is gonna be a phenomenal, a phenomenal thing.
[00:43:43.438]Alright, you know, Atlanta is the world's busiest airport
[00:43:46.663]and just imagine, we're that busy
[00:43:51.121]without really having the amenities
[00:43:53.008]and the infrastructures to support
[00:43:55.095]to level of passengers who come through
[00:43:57.569]on a daily basis, on an annual basis.
[00:44:00.301]Part of what's coming out in our new airport city
[00:44:03.413]will be housing, will be additional retail.
[00:44:08.232]It's gonna look like a city, so much so,
[00:44:11.375]it'll take full advantage of the employees
[00:44:14.628]who work at the airport who physically
[00:44:16.951]have to leave the airport to do, you know,
[00:44:19.405]to get restaurant service and that sort of thing.
[00:44:22.009]You never want, I guess, from a business perspective,
[00:44:25.324]if you've go a captured audience,
[00:44:27.341]you wanna be able to serve that audience
[00:44:30.171]with everything they need without them
[00:44:32.449]having to leave the constraints of your boundaries,
[00:44:34.695]so what the Aerotropolis will do,
[00:44:37.291]it's going to build a new airport hotel.
[00:44:39.488]We already are familiar with several cities
[00:44:42.737]who have hotels attached to their airport.
[00:44:45.896]One of my favorites, so this is another chip,
[00:44:48.550]if you're ever in Orlando, and it happens to be the weekend,
[00:44:51.745]make sure you build enough to time to go up to their hotel,
[00:44:57.068]the Hyatt that's in the Orlando International Airport.
[00:44:59.918]They have the best French toast that I've had in the world.
[00:45:06.323]The creme brulee French toast, I'm threatening
[00:45:09.102]to fly to Orlando on a Sunday just to eat the French toast
[00:45:12.939]and then book a flight out later.
[00:45:15.615]It is, it is amazing.
[00:45:18.401]But the whole Sunday breakfast at that airport is amazing.
[00:45:21.336]So, on the weekend, they only
[00:45:24.396]serve it on the weekend, this brunch.
[00:45:27.258]But, I'm sorry, let me get back on track.
[00:45:30.267]Okay, so the Aerotropolis, the city, the airport city,
[00:45:34.947]that is where we're going.
[00:45:36.618]We're going to spaces that will compliment
[00:45:40.445]the demands of the traveling public
[00:45:43.831]and that's being driven by if I go somewhere
[00:45:49.315]or if you go somewhere, your demands
[00:45:51.383]are that anything you need to do
[00:45:54.077]needs to be within almost an arm reach,
[00:45:56.900]where you stay, where you're gonna get food,
[00:45:59.504]if you need to pick up dry cleaning,
[00:46:01.576]all of those things, you wanna have those services
[00:46:03.588]available in your immediate region.
[00:46:05.643]You don't wanna have to be somewhere
[00:46:08.576]and then go somewhere else to do A, B, C, you know, B, C, D.
[00:46:11.818]You wanna be able to do it all there.
[00:46:13.880]Okay, but to continue my efforts to inspire all of you,
[00:46:19.289]to thank all of you for your chosen fields,
[00:46:21.842]just want to remind you that the future
[00:46:24.968]of transportation firmly rests on your shoulders
[00:46:29.256]and that future is bright.
[00:46:31.265]It is a bright future, because we're in a field
[00:46:35.160]where we touch every facet of life,
[00:46:39.290]the living, the working, the moving, the thriving.
[00:46:42.405]Motorized or non-motorized, all of it is transportation.
[00:46:47.696]All of it is dependent upon us and our abilities
[00:46:51.293]to be able to build out infrastructure,
[00:46:54.309]coordinate corridors, and to also come up with great plans
[00:46:59.162]to move people, places, things, goods, and services.
[00:47:03.842]So, one of the things we're gonna leave with
[00:47:06.921]is a video and I hope I didn't mess it up,
[00:47:11.338]I'm wanting to do a little bit of setup before I go into it.
[00:47:14.245]We talk about community inside,
[00:47:16.780]some of you may not have been, may not have known,
[00:47:19.872]we're gonna talk about community development,
[00:47:22.063]but inside of community development,
[00:47:25.281]transportation is a key component
[00:47:28.550]and one of the things that we have the benefit of
[00:47:31.589]as transportation engineers and planners,
[00:47:35.351]we can see the results of our work.
[00:47:39.257]A lot of times, a lot of other industries
[00:47:43.573]may not see how their work impacts others.
[00:47:47.036]But we have an opportunity to be able to take
[00:47:50.519]not only pride in our work, but also
[00:47:53.382]we can see straight away how what our work product,
[00:47:58.140]how our work product impacts others.
[00:48:01.068]So, this is a short video that I didn't even know
[00:48:03.766]was being recorded until I received the disc in the mail,
[00:48:09.689]and so that's my third point, people are always watching.
[00:48:15.023]There's always someone watching
[00:48:18.105]and taking note at all times.
[00:48:22.372]They may not make themselves apparent, like in my case.
[00:48:26.984]I had no idea that a video was being done and recorded
[00:48:32.935]until I received the video, that's just how
[00:48:36.418]whatever the big word is when someone is able to do that,
[00:48:43.025]or whatever the small word is for that matter,
[00:48:47.344]but it did drive home the point
[00:48:50.308]that probably some of your parents
[00:48:52.119]and your guardians have said, always be on your best,
[00:48:54.558]because someone is always watching.
[00:48:57.365]Always do your best, because you're making
[00:49:00.364]a permanent record that may be written
[00:49:03.180]in invisible ink, but it's being recorded all the same.
[00:49:07.138]So, this one is a video from St. Simons Island.
[00:49:10.717]How many have heard of St. Simons Island, Georgia?
[00:49:13.018]Oh, I invite all of you to at least Google it.
[00:49:18.218](laughter)
[00:49:19.782]To at least Google St. Simons Island,
[00:49:22.164]it is a coastal city in Georgia
[00:49:25.167]that its significance is it is the passageway
[00:49:31.763]to our largest port, which is in Savannah,
[00:49:36.488]and so it's incredibly deep and it has to be so,
[00:49:40.691]because you see a lot of those ships
[00:49:42.932]going through the channel on their way to the port,
[00:49:46.346]so many of them coming from Europe
[00:49:48.574]and other foreign destinations.
[00:49:50.611]And so this lighthouse was actually built in 1871
[00:49:56.814]and you all know what is the purpose of a lighthouse?
[00:50:01.612](students chattering)
[00:50:04.254]Oh, to signal ships, provide the guidance of ships,
[00:50:07.736]that's a good one, 'cause it makes me think
[00:50:09.906]of the story that the lighthouse person told.
[00:50:12.456]Yes, so a working lighthouse is still instrumental, because
[00:50:17.106]again, no matter how much technology becomes available,
[00:50:20.975]a lot of times it comes down to the smallest things.
[00:50:23.810]In this case, just that beam of light
[00:50:26.365]to guide a ship through a channel,
[00:50:28.741]because there is not much difference,
[00:50:32.282]there is not much margin or room
[00:50:34.382]for error coming through a channel.
[00:50:36.190]You're either in the channel or you're on the shore,
[00:50:38.825]and so you need to stay in the channel
[00:50:42.092]with this big cargo ship, so because that is
[00:50:45.828]such an important task that's being relegated to this light,
[00:50:50.276]when we did this lighthouse project, guess what we had
[00:50:54.360]to do, one of the first things we had to do?
[00:50:56.462]We'll say ensure that what?
[00:50:59.210]That the light remained, there was some source of light,
[00:51:03.488]because that light was imperative for safety
[00:51:07.642]and it also was imperative for the
[00:51:09.677]safe passage of those ships.
[00:51:11.764]So, how we were able to do that was
[00:51:15.207]we had to coordinate with the Coast Guard,
[00:51:17.453]again out of Jacksonville, to place a temporary light
[00:51:21.762]so that ships still had some guidance through that channel.
[00:51:27.148]Now, you could imagine, when you turn off
[00:51:31.066]the main light, though, you have a very short window.
[00:51:36.042]How many people have worked on projects
[00:51:38.139]or interned on projects and one of the
[00:51:41.058]first things that the project engineer
[00:51:42.967]whoever's the superintendent does is go over the schedule?
[00:51:45.698]How many people have had that to happen?
[00:51:48.324]Okay, and why do they do that?
[00:51:50.824](students chattering)
[00:51:52.547]Yes, yes, it costs money.
[00:51:56.362]Someone else have an input?
[00:51:58.676]I saw your hand, sir.
[00:52:01.115]What was the importance of them going over the schedule?
[00:52:04.945](student chattering)
[00:52:07.464]Stay within the budget, so time is money,
[00:52:10.208]both of those things are kinda on this equal plane
[00:52:13.068]and sometimes, you don't have more money,
[00:52:15.572]and sometimes you don't have anymore time,
[00:52:18.267]so whatever the schedule, the schedule rules,
[00:52:20.939]so whatever the schedules says,
[00:52:22.854]we've got to make sure we do it.
[00:52:24.156]That was the case with this lighthouse.
[00:52:26.660]It was turned off in December, it was turned off in October,
[00:52:31.696]work started in December, but guess what the schedule said?
[00:52:34.504]The schedule said that lighthouse had to be completed
[00:52:37.796]before the official start of Summer.
[00:52:39.979]Who can guess what the official start of Summer
[00:52:42.995]is considered to be for a seaside city?
[00:52:46.776](students chattering)
[00:52:48.972]April's a good one, May, actually, Memorial Day
[00:52:52.595]is considered to be the start of Summer,
[00:52:54.859]because that's when their tourists start really piling in.
[00:52:57.494]April you do see the pickup in tourists,
[00:53:00.256]but definitely by Memorial Day, which is in May,
[00:53:04.090]you've gotta be clear, the lighthouse has to be
[00:53:06.995]back in order and then we're talking about
[00:53:10.537]a historic transportation structure, this lighthouse,
[00:53:12.794]so we said it was built in 1871.
[00:53:15.158]One of the further challenges, we've got money,
[00:53:19.469]we've got time, but now we've gotta preserve
[00:53:21.477]a building built in 1871.
[00:53:25.858]We can't break the lenses, in other words.
[00:53:28.580]We actually found the original drawings
[00:53:30.669]that were sailed from France with this lighthouse
[00:53:34.201]and meticulous care had to be given
[00:53:37.461]in order to put it all together, to restore it.
[00:53:42.072]Because it's historical, that meant that only certain
[00:53:45.521]craftsmen could work on it, so there were
[00:53:49.643]a lot of moving parts, as you can hear,
[00:53:51.382]but let's see how well we did with that.
[00:54:00.657](soft music)
[00:54:04.296]That's okay, that's good.
[00:54:07.868]Welcome everyone, to the big turn on event.
[00:54:10.933]Many of you are here for the big turn on.
[00:54:13.567](background noise drowns out other sounds)
[00:54:19.870]We stripped this lighthouse down and put it back together.
[00:54:21.648]We're really excited about this and you can see
[00:54:24.033](background noise drowns out other sounds)
[00:54:30.545]And we really appreciate all of you members
[00:54:33.445](background noise drowns out other sounds)
[00:54:55.309]Five, four, three, two, one!
[00:55:01.232](cheering and applause)
[00:55:08.859]So, we were able to do it.
[00:55:10.215]We were able to match the time, money,
[00:55:14.523]and keep it historically intact,
[00:55:18.085]the lens was not broken, even though we had to remove it.
[00:55:22.017]So, in summary, 417,000 jobs, I cannot say that enough,
[00:55:29.753]and I hope, I'm seeing smiles, I'm seeing smiles,
[00:55:32.600]and again, I really feel like if I had
[00:55:34.390]some parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and guardians
[00:55:38.123]they would be ecstatic, because they're like,
[00:55:40.401]"Yes, that's why we sent 'em to school,
[00:55:42.320]they'll be able to get a job."
[00:55:43.845]Okay, our new transportation workforce quite simply is you,
[00:55:47.604]and you'll be paid well, take advantage
[00:55:52.793]of every opportunity you have from internship
[00:55:56.685]to the first day of your first real job
[00:56:00.645]and seize the day, you are in demand,
[00:56:05.380]and I thank you so much for your attention.
[00:56:08.358](applause)

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2017 MATC Scholars Program: Ms. Elaine Armster

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