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Platform Chats
Platform Chats
Engineering Collaboration: How AREMA Student Chapters Shape the Future of Rail
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In this episode, Walt chats with Aaron Dean (Product Development Engineer, Advanced Rail Systems, LLC) and Nicole Anderson (Transportation Engineer/Student, PHMSA/Morgan State University). Aaron is one of AREMA’s Student Chapter Coordinators and a former President of one of AREMA’s first Student Chapters, the Railroad Engineering and Activities Club (REAC) at Michigan Tech. As well as being a doctoral candidate, Nicole is the current President of AREMA’s newest Student Chapter at Morgan State University. The Morgan State Chapter is AREMA’s first Student Chapter at an historically Black university.
They cover a wide range of topics related to the creation of Student Chapters. From the importance of industry champions and collaborators in launching a successful chapter to bringing in speakers and scholarship opportunities to sustain growth, it’s an episode that will make you want to go back to school or at least speak at one. If you’d like to speak at an AREMA Student Chapter, contact info@arema.org.
Being able to come to Morgan State University, you have a HBCU, you're very close to Washington, D.C., it's almost a full ride scholarship. You're going to have these opportunities to go to different conferences. You're not necessarily having to worry about money. It's going to be very hands-on. We have guest speakers, just going to put you in the right position to, once you're finished with the with the degree in the program, you could almost go right into the workforce. So it's almost like a pipeline. So that would that to me that would be my elevator pitch. And I actually am living proof that that actually works because I'm able to go to so many different places that I've never would have thought that I would go of just by having the opportunity here at Morton State.
SPEAKER_02You may know the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, or AREMA, as the quote, keepers of the manuals. You may know them as the quote, people behind the largest annual railroad conference in North America. Heck, you may not know about AREMA at all. This podcast is designed, no pun intended, to change your view of who AREMA is and how AREMA has changed the trajectory of many railway careers over its 100-plus year history. Welcome to Platform Chats with your host, Walt Blesser, where he takes a moment to discuss the impacts AREMA has had on the very people who are proud to be called members. Are you ready to roll with Arima?
SPEAKER_00ARE Corporation is a proud supporter of Arima and Platform Chats. If you are looking to take your railway structure's career to the next level, or simply start it down the right track, please visit us at ARECorp.com. Please see our brand new job postings on our careers page or on our LinkedIn page.
SPEAKER_01Hey everybody, and welcome back to yet another episode of Platform Chats. I'm your host, Walt Blesser. Believe it or not, this is episode 35. I can't believe I'm saying that. 35 episodes on uh Arima railway engineering topics. Can you believe there are 35? I am a little beside myself, uh, the fact that that's even a reality. We are plowing ahead into 2024. We're almost halfway through. Uh we're a little late getting this one out. It is late in June. We're looking uh down the barrel here at July 4th. Uh holiday coming up, so I apologize for not getting one out a little bit sooner. But I had quite a bit of business travel in June that uh really interrupted my my schedule. But uh yeah, I know, play the world's smallest violin for me. But hey, we're gonna get the uh we're getting the content out as fast as we can. We are still in the top 10, believe it or not. I think we dropped there for a second, but I just pulled up the old feed spot uh rankings on Google, which everything on the internet's probably true. Uh and we are number nine out of 35 railway industry podcasts as far as rankings are concerned. And a lot of them above us, I will tell you, are from the UK. I think the I think the UK folks really enjoy uh their railway over there, and they must enjoy writing it and listening to stories about it, uh, because there's several of the top 10 are in the the UK. Um, but hey, I'm pretty impressed. The fact that we only put out one of these per month, and we're we're getting the the listenership, if you will, um that we're getting. So that's pretty cool. Uh today I have two guests with me. Uh, everything is gonna be about student chapters. Uh, I got the OG here, the first student chapter ever for Arima, um, who will be uh I'm not gonna reveal that just yet, and the newest student chapter uh of Arima. And so we're gonna kind of talk about well, all things student chapters, to be honest with you. And I will also say the what really drove this is we had our Arima um chair person slash functional group leadership. So directors, uh vice presidents, plus uh the senior vice president, Mr. Bill Real, who will be the upcoming uh Arima president. We all met in Baltimore, Maryland first week of June and we had a social event. We've been trying hard to organize social events, um attack them on to anything that Arima is doing. Um and I walked into the room and I thought I was at the wrong place because I saw so many people there that I did not know and quickly realized that that is the Morgan State University student chapter was invited, and they showed up in force. And that was awesome to see. We're gonna try to do that as we meet in other cities across the country. So I looked over to my uh lovely podcast handler, Miss Lindsay, and said, Miss Lindsay, what is going on here? Um and she explained, and and Miss Elaine as well told me that this is the newest student chapter. I said, let's get him on the let's get him on the show. So uh I apologize for the overly long introduction. Gee, whiz, we're almost at like three minutes of just intro. Um, if you're still with me, thank you. So we'll start with the two guests. I'm gonna go in uh alphabetical order based on first name. I'm gonna start with the OG, uh, Aaron Dean. He uh will first give an introduction to where he went to school. He can reveal who the OG is and when they were established. I don't want to steal all of his thunder. Aaron, welcome to the show. Uh yeah, go ahead and fill in our listeners on everything, not just about you, but about your student chapter and and and brag brag it up, man.
SPEAKER_04Of course. Thanks, Walt. Happy to be here. Um, yeah, just starting from the beginning, I mean, I grew up in the uh upper peninsula of Michigan, somewhat of a rural area, but wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I I liked trains when I was a kid, but in high school, I wasn't really thinking about my long-term career path. I knew I wanted to go into engineering, and just so happened I had one of the best engineering schools in the country in my backyard at Michigan Tech University. So I I started my bachelor's in mechanical at Michigan Tech uh in fall of 2014, and I just didn't know what track I wanted to go down, didn't know if I wanted to do aerospace or automotive, and so I went out to one of the student org events that they had. I don't know if you've been to something similar, but all the student orgs at the university come out and they showcase uh what they're all about. You know, they they promote themselves amongst the the incoming freshmen for that year. And so I went out there and I came across this organization. It was called the Railroad Engineering and Activities Club at Michigan Tech or React. And what I found out is they were uh one of the ARIMA student chapters. So I went to a couple meetings, they invited me out to a couple meetings and sat through some presentation from some industry professionals, and I went on uh my first rail industry field trip. We went out to Omaha, Nebraska, got to see the Union Pacific headquarters building, the Harriman Dispatch Center, and we had a private dinner on the Heritage Fleet. So that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, never forget it, and been a member of the club ever since, and really never considered that there would be you know careers for an engineer in the railroad industry. And so once I found out about that, it was you know smooth sailing from there. You know, got some internships, got involved. Um, I had my first internship was with Canadian National Railway. Um, I had an internship with a company called Pettibone that does maintenance away work equipment, and now I work for a company as a product development engineer uh called Advanced Rail Systems, LLC. We do uh rail yard automation products, powered switch machines, uh yard automation software, things like that.
SPEAKER_01And you're a mechanical engineer and you are based at Awaco, is that correct?
SPEAKER_04That's correct, yes.
SPEAKER_01Okay, perfect. And how long when did you graduate? Just so I uh understand my uh tenures here.
SPEAKER_04So I graduated in the uh fall of 2018, and during my time at the university, I had the opportunity to lead the student chapter there, the arena student chapter there. I was the president from uh 2016 to 2017, and I mean we did a ton of great stuff, man. We went all over on field trips. We we toured, uh, went down to CN, we toured their homewood headquarters down there, we and their uh mechanical shop. Um we went down to um some BNSF facilities over in Duluth. I mean, we went all over, did some rail industry stuff, brought in some folks to give great presentations, and learned as much as we could about the rail industry while also promoting careers within the railroad industry.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. All right, cool. Well, we're gonna put a we'll put a fork in that one for right now, um, and we'll talk briefly more about your student chapter and your experiences, and you're gonna be the uh the individual that provides a little bit of advice to the bell of the ball here, uh Nicole Anderson, who joins us from uh Baltimore, Maryland. Welcome to the show, Nicole. Have at it.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much. Great to be here. So my name is Nicole Anderson. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Eventually made my way down to Miami, Florida. Um, from there, I actually have a long journey into the railroad industry, or should I say, the transportation industry in general. Uh I originally started out um working as a math teacher. And um, we had a summer camp and they talked about environmental engineering and the concerns with that. And instead of taking courses on just mathematics, I got into engineering courses. That eventually led me to gain a bachelor's and a master's degree in environmental and civil engineering from Florida International University. Uh from there, I eventually made my way up back up to Pittsburgh, um, got a job with the research and development uh division with the NETL, the Natural Energy Technology Lab, made my way over to FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that does pipes. And from there, um, I found myself really more interested in the environmental impacts, and that allowed me to uh get a job in 2018 at FIMSA, the Pipeline Hazardous Material Safety Administration. So I've been working there since 2018, and how I eventually got to Morgan State was I was looking to enhance my skill sets because we do a lot of work with uh transportation. One big thing was the transportation of anhydrous ammonia from railroads, and when the Magellan pipeline shut down in 2020, I was tasked to look at how the supply chains were going to actually change. So that kind of got me into looking at um railroads. And then, of course, in 2020 with the LNG task force, with the transportation of uh LNG, um that um triggered really triggered my interest in in railroad, the railroad industry. So I'm actually at um Morgan State right now, and I'm actually working on my dissertation, and it's on the decision support system for minimizing the negative externalities from liquid natural gas transportation in the built environment. So for me, um I enjoy working at FIMSA and having the opportunity to actually enhance skills that allowed me to pursue working full-time and then also taking classes at Morgan State. From there, from Morgan State, I've I noticed that there was a lot of uh posters set up with this new railroad engineering track that they had going on from 2022, 2023 with a lot of advertisements, and they added a lot of um publicity there and had a lot of uh scholarship opportunities. So for me, it was almost like a win-win for me to be able to work full-time and then also enhance a lot of the skills that I have there. So, in a nutshell, that's kind of how I ended up at Morgan State University.
SPEAKER_01Okay, and for everyone's uh information, number one, thank you for spelling out all the adjectives uh that there was some alphabet soup there, and I'm one of these people that doesn't really know all the organizations you spoke of. Um, so thank you for that. And so are you a non-traditional student then? It sounds like you are working a job.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I actually work full-time as a program analyst at FEMSA. I've been there for about five years, and then I'm also a full-time student at Morgan State University. This is my fourth year in the doctoral program there.
SPEAKER_01And FEMSA stands for what?
SPEAKER_03Pipeline Hazardous Material Safety Administration. So we're pretty much like the nucleus. So anything that has to do with the transportation of hazardous material, no matter what the mode is, we regulate it so we can look at data, we look at safety trends, and then we just find uh the best way of making sure like the public is uh is safe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would say transportation of hazardous materials does appear to be a hot topic uh if you have not had your head in the sand for the last two to three years. So uh very relevant topic. So Morgan State, historically black college, yes? Yes, it is. All right, and our first to be a part of ARIMA. So do you know that's really exciting stuff. So who started that chapter? Was it you or was there was there somebody else? Is it a professor? Uh do you know?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so we had um we have two professors. One is the inaugural chair, we have Dr. Anthony Saka along with Dr. Yong Jai Lee. They uh partnered up with the University of Delaware. So some individuals from there are Alan Zarimsky, Monique Head, and Joseph Police. They worked together, I believe, for about a year or so. We got a lot of funding for it, so that's kind of led to a lot of advertisements for scholarships and getting people more into the rail industry. Um, so they worked together and basically started this uh this track and it's getting a lot of uh attention and is definitely getting a lot more students interested as as it's going on.
SPEAKER_01All right, that's really cool because uh you just dropped some names that have been around the industry for a very long time. So uh Dr. Zarimsky Alan, he's been around forever. He had his own firm. I know he has since uh sold it. Uh I I had previous coworkers in a in a different world uh many years ago that worked for his firm. Um so it's cool to see that he has spread that to Morgan State. So you were incorporated in roughly it sounds like rough roughly 22. Does that sound right? Yes.
SPEAKER_03Yes. And then we started our our first courses in 2023.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So yeah, you guys are fresh. And Aaron, you guys at uh uh Michigan Tech, right? Excuse me, Michigan Tech. You you guys started what year?
SPEAKER_04So the Arima student chapter was formed in 2006, and we had a really all student chapters start from just a single champion. This could be uh faculty member, it could be somebody from the industry. In that case, back in 2006, our champion was a guy by the name of Eric Peterson, now CSX retired. But he understood the need uh for student chapters at the time. He saw a disconnect between uh students that were taking a rail focus, rail education focus, and a disconnect between those students and AREMA. And he thought of the idea of putting together a student chapters program. So he coordinated along with uh Dr. Posse Latala, the director of the rail program at Michigan Tech, they both coordinated with ARIMA on producing the first set, producing the first charter, the first set of bylaws, and a couple months later, uh the Michigan Tech ARIMA student chapter was formed.
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right, and so that's oh six, that's quite a while ago. Fantastic. And you uh uh during your tenure there, you ran the chapter. And Nicole, are you currently running the chapter for Morgan State? Yes, I am. I'm the first president. Wow. Uh so you are working on a job, you are working on a doctorate degree. I know you've got a little one at home, and you said the heck with it, I'm gonna also be the president of the student chapter. You got that right. And I just want everyone to know she is smiling ear to ear as she uh responded to that uh comment. So that good for you. I mean, that's awesome. How many people are in the student chapter at Morgan State?
SPEAKER_03So far, we have 15 student members.
SPEAKER_01Okay, cool. And so what are the advantages? Obviously, exposure, right, to the railway uh industry, but are there, and you're talking to someone that did not, I was not part of an arena of student chapter in college. Um what what what are the, I guess for lack of a better term, what are the perks? I mean, are there exposure to I heard you say something about scholarship opportunities, Nicole. Is that part of this or is that separate?
SPEAKER_03It's actually can be part of it. Um just because we were able to get a significant amount of money from the partnership. For the next four years, they're gonna offer $10,000, $20,000 scholarships for individuals that are coming into the HBCU that are interested in railroad engineering track. And for students that are already pursuing the program, especially for like grad students, they're offering, I believe, $15,000, $5,000 scholarships. So the money is and the interests are are definitely there. Um, just the exposure, um, being very close to Washington, D.C., we we have the opportunity to um go to the Transportation Research Board. We've had a lot of students um go out to different labs, um talk with people within the industry, see how like railways are are are built, the rail cars, just the manufacturing of them, inspections, just because we're so close to DC and the agency, so we can have some partnerships um with them. And then also a lot of exposures to like the conferences. Um it's been a a really awarding um career uh so far. And um the people that I've talked to and and the students that are within the the student chapter, we're very happy with the way that it's progressing. And there's actually as time goes on more and more courses that are that are being offered. It's very, very beneficial. So um, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01So I I mean I heard like you that the quick math in my head is close to $275,000 available for scholarships. That's that's amazing. I mean, that's that's awesome. Where is that's where's the money coming from? Do you know?
SPEAKER_03Actually, I'm not 100% sure. I think it might come from off of um, I think it actually might have started from the federal railroad administration, the FRA, basically saying that they see that um they started seeing a lack of diversity there and also within the industry workforce. So I believe that they partnered, gained some money from the the government, um, and were able to use that grant money to kind of build like equity, um, some issues also with like the climate change and that that net zero. So there's a way of tying all of those things together, and um Morgan State definitely is has been a good benefactor.
SPEAKER_01Uh wow, that's that's awesome. Aaron, you are, I believe, were you a scholarship recipient at one point?
SPEAKER_04Yes, so I was uh I was able to receive uh an AREMA Educational Foundation scholarship, and um these are you know scholarships that are are funded by the REMA Educational Foundation. They're they're not you know large scholarships by any means, but they are uh easily attainable. Um you can fill out that if you're any student, you know, in a railroad engineering track or a railroad education track, um, and you would like to pursue those scholarships, uh you just simply fill out uh information, you know, discuss your your career goals and In your what your ideal career path, how you want to remain involved in the industry, and those scholarships are available.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so just I want to make sure we're crystal clear on this one. Um that's for anyone, even if they're not in a student chapter.
SPEAKER_04Is that correct? Yes, yes. Any student who is and you you have to become an AREMA student member, and here's the kicker AREMA student membership is free to sign up. So you can sign up for an AREMA student membership, you get all the benefits, um, but then you also have the ability to apply for an AREMA Educational Foundation scholarship, and it's really easy to do.
SPEAKER_01All right, all right. If you're out there and you're listening and you're a student, that seems like a no-brainer to me. If you have any interest at all in uh in the railway industry, the Morgan State stuff, I'm assuming that is specifically to Morgan State uh uh students, correct, Nicole? That's what you talked about.
SPEAKER_03Yes, so the the scholarships that I mentioned earlier are pertaining to the railroad engineering tracks. They do have a lot of other scholarships. For example, for me, um I was a recipient of the TRB Minority Fellowship Scholarship and also the Eisenhower. So basically, people that are coming in or students that are uh representatives of like underserved communities, um, they have the opportunity to have access to to these scholarships, and that's been very beneficial for me because um as I said previously, it's uh starting at Morgan State, this was ability for me to kind of build some skill sets. And as I was taking additional courses, scholarships uh arose. And then that's how I ended up deciding to pursue a doctorate degree from this.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Okay, so those scholarships were obviously uh very uh integral in your life uh path. And I mean, just to expand, um, you know, let's let's expand just briefly on the HSBC piece of this. Um would you say to someone, uh the old elevator pitch, as I like to call it, um, that there are opportunities abound, if you will, in this industry if they were to come to Morgan State and apply for scholarships? I mean, uh does that make sense? Like, do you think on an elevator ride you could convince someone to uh to jump onto this career track? What do you think? Or how would you do it?
SPEAKER_03I definitely can. So if I was on uh an elevator, I would ask somebody if they have a strong interest in just transportation, the environment, just different modes of of um of transportation, because the railroad industry is so wide and just the different things that are being transported, they have these safety trends and these impacts and these different regulations that are associated with it. So from there, I would also add that you know, through the Biden administration, how we have this one billion dollar grant that goes towards um improving this infrastructure, that leads to a lot of money. And as time is going on, we have a lot of people that are actually retiring from these workforces. Um being able to come to Morgan State University, you have a HBCU, you're very close to Washington, D.C., it's almost a full-right scholarship, you're going to have these opportunities to go to different conferences, um, you're not necessarily having to worry about money. It's going to be very hands-on. We have guest speakers, just gonna put you in the right position to once you're finished with the with the the degree in the program, you could almost go right into the work so workforce. So it's almost like um uh a pipeline. So that would that to me, that would be my elevator pitch. And I actually am living proof that that actually works because I'm able to go to so many different places that I've never would have thought that I would go of just by having the opportunity here at Morgan State.
SPEAKER_01So uh Aaron, did you notice how in that fantastic pitch she brought everything back to pipelines?
SPEAKER_04Of course. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right, there it was. I had to use the drum button and she's been talking, uh, she's been talking pipelines. She's worked in the pipeline industry, and uh, she brought it back there full circle, full stop. I like it. I feel like that is a hard pitch to disagree with. Um well said, Nicole. Aaron, uh, how about let's give you a little bit of spotlight here. I haven't given you a ton of time to talk. So how about pros, cons, things, uh advice uh as the OG student chapter member to the Morgan State newbie here? Are there things that you you could tell her that would help her in her uh chapter like to be successful?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, um, and I I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but after I had left the uh Michigan Tech, graduated from Michigan Tech, spent my time there, I wanted to stay involved in AREMA. And so the way I did that was I got involved with AREMA Committee 24 and uh AREMA Committee 24 Professional Education. Um so basically in that role uh or in AREMA Committee 24, I assumed the role of a student chapter coordinator. So I was able to interact with student chapter coordinators or student chapters from all over um the US, North America. We had at one point before COVID, we had 25 student chapters, so I'd seen everything. Um, and basically that was the role of the student chapter coordinator was to be a liaison between the universities at the chapter level and ARIMA HQ. And so I saw all of the issues, not just from my experience at Michigan Tech, but from in that role as a student chapter coordinator. And the biggest thing that I can see is the biggest issue that I've seen in the past is trying to make sure your your members are staying engaged. And the biggest thing that I see is a you know that's helpful is to have quality events. So you want to make sure you're bringing in uh professionals from the railroad industry to give presentations to a general student body, um, and then get out in the field, you know, go on field trips. If you have an opportunity to get out and see where the magic happens, um go out to a rail yard, go to a locomotive shop, go to a dispatch center, um, go to a bridge, go see a bridge. You know, some you wouldn't think about it, but you know, going to just see a structure, uh you know, infrastructure is it's great to see the stuff in action. And so I would say you know, keeping your members engaged, keeping them excited about the railroad industry, uh, excited about getting a career in the railroad industry, uh, that's huge for making sure that your six your chapter is successful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and let's let's not make light of going to see a bridge, buddy.
SPEAKER_04Of course. I had to I had to put in that plug there.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. I appreciate that as the bridge guy that yes, going out and standing there staring at a bridge is uh not a bad thing. Yeah, I I agree. I think any student chapter, no matter what the topic is, uh whether it's the arena student chapter or it's a club sport, you're only going to be as successful as the participants. And to keep the participants excited, you always have to be kind of trying new things, I guess. I know uh at my college we had a strong uh ASCE chapter, because I'm a civil. Um and yeah, I think once a month we had like a free pizza night slash somebody from the industry came in and gave a presentation. Uh whether that was a yeah, uh it was very similar to the presentations you might see at the national conference, right? Like a project related, uh, etc. Um, so is that uh not to put Nicole on the spot, but how often do you guys meet um and what do your meetings look like? So if someone is listening, they might want to join.
SPEAKER_03So right now we're kind of getting started with up and running. So the REMA uh uh the re the REMA uh meeting that we went to in June, uh where we met you all at, that was actually one of our first uh meetings. So we're still in the process of kind of getting some activities together, especially since it's the summertime. But ideally, we're trying to meet maybe once a month, um, get some type of uh project together for the student chapters to work on. Definitely will take uh a lot of Aaron's advice. We we do have some like weekly seminars that we want to kind of get up and running as the railroad courses become a little bit more abundant and a little bit more available. We do have like seminar kind of sessions that are going to be going on where we have invited guests that will come in and give uh a little bit of spill about what kind of work that they do within the the railroad industry.
SPEAKER_01So oh, well that's perfect. And I I can't, you know, Areema headquarters is there in Maryland, uh, but uh you made a comment earlier. Just you're so close to DC that um there have to be some great speakers there at the FRA that can come and talk. TRB, you've already mentioned TRB. Um and let's be honest, you're not far from a lot of other large city centers that have really cool projects going on. There's cool projects all over New York City, and Amtrak has a lot of bridge projects under construction. Um and I think the coolest thing really about this organization, and the reason I, well, frankly, I've done 35 podcasts at the conclusion of this one is that the network is very helpful. Uh I I have yet to receive a uh go away, don't bother me, type email if I have a question. It's usually if it's a REMA related and you're genuine in your ask, you're gonna get a response. And so looking at where the different chapters are meeting, uh, you know, there's a passenger and transit group, there are structures groups, there are CNS. Um what uh you said 24, so 24 does a lot of the outreach, um, Aaron. Are you a member of other technical committees or just 24?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so I I used to be a member when in my past maintenance away work equipment life, I was a member of uh Committee 27 for work equipment, but now I'm a member of Committee 38, um, which is information uh wayside detection uh communication. Um and so in that role, you know, it doesn't re it doesn't matter what chapter it is or committee it is, we're always looking for student participation. Um we are actively seeking uh student participants. You know, it we have no problem getting professionals start participate in the committees. Um the biggest thing we want to do is get the students involved so they can see what it's like to be a part of a committee. Um as an associate as a student member and as an associate member, you don't necessarily have the rights to vote on a ballot or vote on any of the uh you know amendments being made to the manual, but you can come and experience it and see you know the things that are or hear the things that are being discussed. And it's a great opportunity to learn about what it might be like to be a member of a committee and something to consider as you enter your professional career in the industry.
SPEAKER_01And I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't bring up the national convention too. So uh does Nicole's student chapter do they have perks to attending said um convention in Louisville? Like I I can't remember. Okay, maybe you could okay, maybe you already know that, Nicole. What is the what's the perk there?
SPEAKER_03One of the main perks is that I believe for the students uh the registration fee is is zero. So that's definitely one of the big bonuses with that. And there's there's been a lot of contact since we have joined of people welcoming the the chapter and us as members, um adding to what Aaron said, um, just people reaching out and saying what kind of committees they're on. I'm actually uh joined uh committee number 13, the environmental one. So I'm I'm getting in into that a little bit more. Um but there there has been a lot of uh people um just kind of helping us and guiding us with um just certain safety trends that we might be interested in. I've also noticed like within the AREMA portal, if you have any particular questions that you want to ask, there's always somebody there that's gonna be able to kind of help you. So we are kind of working together. I'm actually working with the vice president Mohib Kabir and another AREMA student, Nashee Kadim. We're we're we're working on um uh a publication. So hopefully we might be able to get this published and um be able to attend certain conferences that are coming up in the future. Uh I know there's the annual conference, of course, that's in September. And um believe we're aware of the rail and environmental one in October in Chicago. And we're also looking at just like rail impacts of like transporting LNG by rail. Like there's the uh women in gender studies uh that's coming up in September that we're trying to uh finish a paper on and make our way out there as well. So we we we definitely have had a lot of support and been doing a um a lot of networking since we've we have been established.
SPEAKER_01And the structure symposium in February in Fort Worth. I knew you were about to say that, so I figured I'd just go ahead and can't forget about that one. Ah, can't forget that one. All right, well, that sounds you are jumping right in. Uh 13's growing fast. I'm really happy to hear that you joined 13. Uh, we actually had them on the on the show not that long ago. Uh their membership is going way up. They had a really cool symposium uh in Florida, I want to say, last uh, I think that was also in February, um, that was very successful. So all right, it sounds like you pretty much know uh the perks and you are exploiting said perks, which is a great thing to be doing as the student chapter there at Morgan State. And hopefully there's outreach to other HBSCs. Uh, you know, obviously, let's not get the cart before the horse here. You're like, hey man, I got a lot going on here in my life. Um, but maybe over the course of the next few years that could you could uh work on that. And Aaron, I it seems like correct me if I'm wrong, but there's got to be some sort of network of uh people that have been, you know, uh, I don't know, for lack of a better term, alumni of these student chapters. I'm sure you're willing to help anything Nicole needs help with.
SPEAKER_04Of course, yeah. I mean, we have many great resources for student chapters. Um, we have multiple tasks within our our Committee 24 uh committee that you know that are focused around student members and student chapters. And so we have, for example, uh the mentorship program. Um the mentorship program has been a great resource, not just for arena student chapter members, but just a general arena student members to get paired with an industry representative, um, and they can uh build that mentor-mentee relationship as the the mentee tries to navigate a professional career in the railroad industry. Um we also have our student speakers database. So this is a database that we compiled of, like you said, alumni that have gone through either whether it's a rail transportation program at their university, they've they've just felt delved right into a rail industry career, or they've been through the AREMA student chapters program. This is a network of uh volunteer speakers that have signed up to give presentations at student chapters at universities. So if you're looking for somebody to come and give a presentation, if you want to hear from a specific topic or background, you can reach out to the student chapter coordinators and we'll make sure to get you connected with somebody from that speaker database.
SPEAKER_01I think that's a great way to end this podcast. Thank you both for being on here. Uh Aaron, thanks for all the support that you're providing. Uh Nicole, thank you so much for taking on all this all this stuff that you're trying to do here. Uh, we really appreciate it. And uh I look forward to seeing both of you in Louisville. Uh wait, hang on a second. Nicole, are you going into Louisville? Do you have time?
SPEAKER_03I'm I'm working on it. I I have some other things going on, but that is definitely on my radar to get out there for sure.
SPEAKER_01Because I'm guessing you have not been to a national no, this will be my this will be my first. All right. Well, that'll be the that's the Kool Aid you need to drink.
SPEAKER_04Uh we would love to see you there.
SPEAKER_03There you go. We'd love to see everybody there. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01All right, you two. Have a great uh holiday weekend that's coming up here shortly. And uh again, thank you for participating. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03It's a pleasure.
SPEAKER_02Thank you all. Thank you for rolling with Arima on today's episode of Platform Chats. For further information about Arima, please visit arema.org or contact us at info at arema.org.
