“This is about more than finding good talent. We ask ourselves: How do we serve others? How do we help them in their careers and in their lives?”
“It’s always inspiring to talk to the industry leaders of tomorrow!” says Apex’s Davor Bozic. “A favorite part of my job is working with the ASCE student chapters at our local universities. It’s a great way to be a resource for young people in the industry.”
In addition to representing more than 150,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries, the America Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has 407 student chapters, including those at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of North Florida (UNF), which Apex is proud to sponsor and support.
“Being involved with ASCE student chapters is a great way for Apex to stand out on our local campuses,” says Davor. “Not only are we interacting with the top talent at these schools, we are providing the future leaders of our industry with resources and guidance that can help shape their lives post-graduation.”
Davor started with Apex as a designer intern in 2016 and moved from the role of engineering associate to junior project manager in 2021. He has been leading the charge with student chapter involvement and recruiting since the company got involved with ASCE on campus in 2020.
“Our involvement during COVID was obviously limited to online meetings,” Davor explains. “When students began to emerge from their virtual learning environment, we were happy to help reenergize the group as students returned to campus and were ready to get more involved again.”
The recruiting events Apex attended on both campuses this spring were fruitful. All of Apex’s interns and new hires this cycle went to either UNF or UF, and all were involved in ASCE.
“This is about more than finding good talent,” Davor explains. “We ask ourselves: How do we serve others? How do we help them in their careers and in their lives? It’s important to get into these chapters and meet young people trying to figure things out – to be a resource.”
Davor says that every Apex engineer has been involved in ASCE at one point or another and agree that involvement is a great way to stay in touch with the civil engineering community and continue learning from one another. The company’s support of student chapters will continue with events kicking off in August as school resumes. Stay tuned!
Over the past semester, Apex has participated in a number of events, which included sponsoring the UF ASCE Student Chapter’s First Annual Cornhole Tournament and speaking at the UNF student chapter general body meeting. The Apex team also took UF students on a site visit to a nearby D.R. Horton jobsite, providing them with both engineer and builder insight into how industry professionals get people into their dream homes. That experience helped prepare UF students for the Timber-Strong Design Build Competition held at the 2022 ASCE Southeast Student Symposium in Tallahassee. This competition challenged students to create a REVIT model, generate engineering calculations, and hand-frame a 2-story light wood-frame structure.
“Our involvement has really helped Apex make a name for ourselves on these campuses,” says Davor. “We now have students approach us at recruiting events and know who we are because we’ve made ourselves available to them through chapter meeting and activities.”