If you are looking for someone who is qualified to explain the benefits of NASTT Student Chapters, look no further than Dr. Samuel T. Ariaratnam. He is a professor and sunstate chair of construction management and engineering at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment in Tempe, Arizona. Ariaratnam is the faculty adviser for his university’s NASTT Student Chapter.
Ariaratnam is a firm believer in the value of NASTT Student Chapters, both for the students who belong to them and the trenchless technology industry as a whole.
“NASTT Student Chapters are really important for exposing students to trenchless technology,” he explains. “This is why I had an NASTT Student Chapter at the University of Alberta that I started back in 1996-1997 when I taught there. When I took a position at Arizona State University in 2001, I immediately started one here at ASU. It’s very important to do so for the sake of my students, because trenchless is an area that they really don’t get a lot of exposure to.
“Having an NASTT Student Chapter really provides a catalyst for students to engage in this industry,” Ariaratnam adds. “After all, they are the potential future employees and/or future stakeholders of the trenchless industry. This is why you have to reach them at that grassroots level.”
Keeping students involved
Attending the annual NASTT No-Dig Show is the big draw for students who join ASU’s NASTT Student Chapter.
“It helps that NASTT provides stipends to help NASTT Student Chapter members attend the show,” says Ariaratnam. “In exchange for these stipends, the students work as room monitors and help with registration and other activities. Attending the No-Dig Show allows them to see the industry up close, learn more about it and network with potential employers where they often get offered internships and jobs. They also get to see different technologies at the exhibition hall and listen to technical papers — all of which really helps them make that decision to go and pursue employment in the trenchless industry upon graduation.”
When they’re not at the No-Dig Show, ASU’s NASTT Student Chapter members get together on a periodic basis.
“Often they bring in guest lecturers who are usually NASTT members to talk about various aspects of trenchless technologies,” Ariaratnam says. “That’s a big thing and it really provides that industry perspective that they take seriously. I mean, we as professors can talk all we want to, but when our students get that industry perspective, that really catches their interest.”
With almost three decades’ experience running NASTT Student Chapters and tracking the careers of their members after graduation, Ariaratnam is well-placed to pass judgment on these chapters’ value. His assessment?
“We have a really good record of students that go through these chapters actually working in the trenchless industry,” he says. “You look around the country and you’ll see a number of former members who have become professors at universities and have set up their own Student Chapters.”
Keeping chapters active
Ariaratnam knows what it takes to keep an NASTT Student Chapter alive and thriving after its current members graduate.
“The key — and I’ll be quite frank about it — is that some universities have one or two students who are really interested in trenchless,” he says. “These students set up a chapter, and then, once they graduate, there’s no activity whatsoever with that chapter and it dies. The secret to keeping an NASTT Student Chapter going strong is to have a faculty member who is committed to serving as the adviser for the chapter from year to year. You can have all the interest in the world with students, but if you don’t have that designated faculty member as an adviser that’s going to go to the No-Dig Shows and participate and engage with the industry, then I think it’s very difficult to really sustain a chapter.”
Ariaratnam is sure about one thing: At a time when talent is in short supply across the entire construction industry, NASTT Student Chapters are an effective way to attract new people into the trenchless technologies industry.
“This is why the trenchless industry, through NASTT, is doing the right thing by providing the scholarships and by promoting Student Chapters,” he says. “They are where you’re going to get the future leaders in all sectors of our trenchless industry.”
