Civil is super interdisciplinary.
Erinn Kaiser started at UMD in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department in Fall 2021. She had been attracted to UMD because of its strong engineering school, as she already knew she wanted to pursue civil engineering. “I like that Civil is super interdisciplinary. You learn a lot with one degree,” she says. She is now a senior in the Transportation/ Project Management track. She plans to graduate this semester, Spring 2025.
Erinn enjoys that UMD is a big state school where there is always a lot going on, and a lot of organizations with which to get involved. Her favorite thing about the CEE Department is the people she’s met, whether students, faculty, or staff. She has also enjoyed civil classes including Dr. Andrade’s Engineering for Sustainability class and Dr. Wang’s Introduction to Transportation Engineering and Planning class.
In her first year at UMD, Erinn noticed someone walking a dog around campus with a yellow jacket. She was curious, so she searched online for the name on the jacket, Guide Dog Foundation. She learned it is an organization through which people can raise and train future guide dogs. She quickly joined the program at UMD called Terps Raising Pups, took their training program, and started raising a puppy in the summer after freshman year. With a friend’s help, she raises 8-16-week-old puppies for a year to a year and a half before the dogs move on to advanced training. She is now raising her fourth dog, Bailey, a golden retriever. She has risen from the rank of Puppy Sitter to Area Coordinator, so she can hold training classes and mentor others. Her work with Terps Raising Pups is “the best thing that I’ve done in college,” she says.
Erinn was also Treasurer of UMD’s club tennis team for the past three years. She enjoys traveling around the region with her team for tournaments. In her free time she also loves to ski. Last summer, she interned with Buch Construction as a Project Engineering Intern working on site plans for renovation of an office and a warehouse.
After graduating this spring, Erinn will be working for AECOM as a Transportation Engineer. In the long term, she is considering living on the west coast, where she wants to continue skiing and possibly join the National Ski Patrol. And there may just be some more service dogs in training for her to raise on behalf of a good cause.
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