CTA Scholarship helps students in the engineering and construction field

Austin Washington, a Freshman at Morehouse College, is one of three recipients of the CTA Elevated Futures Scholarship Fund. Photo provided by CTA.
Austin Washington, a Freshman at Morehouse College, is one of three recipients of the CTA Elevated Futures Scholarship Fund. Photo provided by CTA.

CTA Scholarship helps students in the engineering and construction field

By Tia Carol Jones

Austin Washington always used CTA to get around town. It enabled him to explore where he grew up.  When he heard about the CTA Elevating Futures Scholarship Fund, he decided to apply. He hoped it would help him pay for college.

Washington, who graduated from Kenwood Academy High School, is studying civil and construction engineering at Morehouse College where he is a freshman. He is one of three students who have been awarded the 2023-2024 CTA Elevating Futures Scholarship Fund.

Washington hopes to go into construction and city planning after he graduates from Morehouse. Having Chicago Scholars partner in the scholarship has helped him develop core skills and meet new people. “They also help academically, with resources and offerings of tutoring and even summer internships in the meantime,” he said.

The scholarship fund launched in 2020 and is a partnership between CTA and Walsh-Fluor, which is the prime contractor for the Red and Purple Modernization (RPM) Phase One Project. Since it began, more than $225,000 has been awarded to 10 students who are pursuing degrees in the engineering and construction fields.

Students will receive $5,500 per student for four years. Walsh-Flour has provided the financial support for the scholarship and Chicago Scholars has been providing mentoring support. This is the last year for the scholarship.

JuanPablo Prieto, Director of Diversity Programs at CTA, said within the Request For Proposals (RFP) for the Red and Purple Modernization Phase One Project, it called for innovative strategies on how to diversify the workforce in the construction industry. Walsh-Fluor included a scholarship that would be awarded to students in economically disadvantaged areas that were pursuing STEM degrees within their RFP.

“The ultimate goal was to try and diversify the engineering and construction management side of the construction industry. This is a small drop in the bucket, but we wanted to show that it can be done through these investments,” Prieto said.

At $2.1 billion, RPM is the largest capital project to date in CTA’s history and CTA wanted to do some good with it. With Chicago Scholars, CTA and Walsh Fluor wanted to give students the tools to be successful while they were pursuing their degrees. CTA wanted to make sure there were experts who were able to help the students navigate the transition from high school to college, since some of the awardees might be first generation college students.

Students who have received the scholarship have served as interns in their field, and one was an intern with Walsh-Fluor. They are getting real world experience.

“It definitely gave these students some of the financial support they needed to pursue their dreams in engineering and other construction-related fields,” Prieto said, adding that the hope is the students will work for CTA directly or will work for a contractor that will win a project for CTA.

The hope also is that the students who have been awarded the scholarship will make an impact in the construction industry and how investments like these benefits the community as a whole.

CTA welcomes any company that is submitting a proposal to include a program like this one. It is very intentional in the language it uses in its diversity outreach plan. It calls for contractors who are bidding on CTA work to ensure students can pursue degrees in STEM and construction.

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