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Alyson Radel Lester, a Brandywine Hundred native is the
ASCE's 2006 Young Civil Engineer of the
Year. |
By PETER BOTHUM
The News Journal
05/14/2006
One listen to Alyson Radel Lester's voice mail at work gives away one of her most endearing and useful traits.
The caller hears Lester, a Brandywine Hundred native and engineer/task manager for Urban Engineers in Philadelphia, whip through her message like lightning. It shows she's moving fast through tasks, juggling, prioritizing and then speeding past the rest of us without sacrificing an ounce of efficiency. Or cheerfulness.
"I've never seen her not smiling, and I've never seen her with less than six things going on," said Robert Wright, chair of the awards committee for the Philadelphia section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. "She's a diminutive girl, but she's like a ball of energy."
It was that energy, and that zest for working even after her "regular" work hours were through, that helped Lester snag the ASCE's 2006 Young Civil Engineer of the Year award.
Wright said that Lester, 30, did an excellent job helping more inexperienced engineers along, arranging tours of the Ben Franklin Bridge repainting project and Citizens Bank Park She has also volunteered for Habitat For Humanity and arranged various social outings for ASCE.
Lester said she loved working with the mostly younger engineers, whom she affectionately called the "grunts."
"You have people that are fresh out of school, and you have people who are at the level where they're starting projects," said Lester, who lives in Jenkintown with her husband Greg and their 1-year-old daughter, Julia. "These guys are just phenomenal."
Lester earned her bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Delaware in 1998, but her interest in engineering and using creative thinking to resolve construction conflicts and plan parking lots dates back to Concord High School. It was there that she learned to merge a skill in art with a love of science, she said.
She credits a junior high school algebra teacher, Barry Kopnicky, with helping her master a skill vital to her career and success -- somehow, someway enjoying math.
"I always had this perception that I was bad in math and there was no way I could do well," Lester said. "He made math fun. I know that I'm not afraid of it anymore."
Paired with her skill for juggling and tackling tasks quickly, the math comes in handy as Lester adds up and divides time for the many joys of her life -- Julia, Greg, her job, her work with ASCE and her passion for running and street hockey.
How does she do it?
"Good old coffee," she said, noting that she's at least scaled back from the gallons she used to chug in high school and college. "Coffee and exercise."
Contact Peter Bothum at 324-2885 or pbothum@delawareonline.com.
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