Cing Kim
Ever wonder what it’s like to be a civil engineering college student these days?
It must be crazy, right? Virtual this and AI that.
Well, the good news is the fundamentals remain timeless: making friends, stressing about grades, trying to land a job someday.
And even better, the ASCE Student Ambassadors work tirelessly to share their campus experiences, so you can learn firsthand exactly what it’s like to be a civil engineering student in 2025.
Entering its sixth year, the ASCE Student Ambassador program showcases student members, their activities, and points of view. The ambassadors represent ASCE on their campuses and through social media, promoting Society events and resources that can help fellow students advance their collegiate careers – and beyond.
This year’s class features 25 undergraduate superstars. One – Cing Kim, a third-year student at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, is returning for her third school year as a student ambassador. She recently spoke with Civil Engineering Source about the program, student life, and the upcoming school year.
Civil Engineering Source: What’s your favorite part of back-to-school season?
Cing Kim: I think my favorite part about being back on campus is talking to the incoming freshmen about opportunities that they have, especially with ASCE, how they can get involved. I can share with them how much I’ve benefited from joining ASCE – the Great Lakes Student Symposium, the competitions, the networking, and just the leadership and growth I’ve gotten from ASCE.
Source: Do you remember when you were a freshman? What were your impressions of coming to college that first week?
Kim: So yeah, first week. [laughs] I am an out-of-state student from Georgia, so that was a big change for me. In our culture (Zo Chin of Burma), it’s not very common for us to leave the home that early, especially as a woman.
So that was the first challenge that I faced, but joining clubs like ASCE and Engineers Without Borders really helped me find my people; students with the same interests and goals as me.
Source: So what’s one thing you’re hoping to accomplish this school year?
Kim: Passing my classes? [laughs] No, one goal I have is to pass down the role of leadership positions to the students younger than me. I want to make sure that opportunity of leadership and growth is passed down to someone else to give them the chance to grow and learn like I did.
Source: What’s one class that you’re looking forward to this year?
Kim: Right now, I think it would be our construction materials class. This class really gets into the real world of construction. I’m specializing in construction management, so it’s exciting to have those classes that I can apply directly to my field.
Source: What about a non-engineering class you’re excited for?
Kim: I’ve finished with my humanities and social science courses, but right now I’m taking food science for my minor in sustainability. It’s really refreshing to go to that class and not have to think about any engineering subjects. [laughs] I can kind of treat it like a mental break from all the math and calculations and stuff like that.
Source: I know you participated in the Construction Institute Student Days this summer and even received the event’s social media award. Social media is a huge part of being an ASCE Student Ambassador too. What’s your favorite part about using social media these days?
Kim: I think I like just being able to be creative, because I also like photography and videography. I have my own YouTube channel. So I love the chance to create content focusing on engineering and helping out students. I’m able to put my creative side out there and help people at the same time.
Source: So if you close your eyes and daydream about what your career might look like in 10 years, what do you imagine? What is your dream?
Kim: OK. So my dream is that after graduation, I’ll go work in the field for a couple of years, gaining leadership experience or in the construction management field. I hope to be working on really cool projects – skyscrapers or some kind of buildings.
And then after that, hopefully I can start my own company and work toward my passion for helping underdeveloped countries, including my own back home in Burma. So that would be my main goal or dream: to give back to my community and other underdeveloped countries.
Source: So I have to ask – I think anyone who knows about the ASCE Student Ambassador program knows you all get big boxes of ASCE merch throughout the school year. What are you going to be doing with the first box that you get in the mail this year?
Kim: I actually got it today, like two hours ago, and I opened it and was super excited. This time, the box was heavier than usual, so I thought there must be new stuff, and I was right.
We got new cups and some umbrellas. And this year, added some content creation equipment like ring lights, the sticky things that you put on your phone, and a microphone. So that motivated me to make a video, and I will be posting that today.
The complete list of new ASCE Student Ambassadors for 2025-26:
Fares Al-Lahabi – Manhattan University
Jesse Bertucci – Louisiana Tech University
Chiara Brancacio – Boise State University
Karen Campuzano – University of Texas at Arlington
Jacelyn Dilay – Cal Poly Pomona
Konnor Frost – University of South Alabama
Margreta Gerdzhikova – University of Maryland
Cing Kim – Illinois Institute of Technology
Viktoriia Kurilenko – University of Southern California
Stacey Legg – Ohio Northern University
Olivia Leon – New Mexico State University
Megan McCracken – University of Akron
Nicholas Mendoza – University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Emma Miernicki – Widener University
Astrid Miranda – University of Evansville
Veronica Montero-Sanchez – Florida Institute of Technology
Samantha Morgan – Rochester Institute of Technology
Cody Peterson – South Dakota State University
Jordan Rich – New Jersey Institute of Technology
Caitey Ruzicka – University of Nebraska
Mason Slaughter – University of Arkansas
Cornia (Nia) Spears – University of Missouri
Olivia Stewart – University of Maine
Andrea Valls – Texas A&M
Jordan VanderMeer – Michigan Technological University
