interest, vision, goals
o What particular social, cultural, business, policy, or global issue is your focus of interest? What are the major factors driving change on this issue?
o Why are you dedicated to this issue, and what is your vision to lead positive impact in the future?
o How will the Schwarzman Scholars program and a deeper knowledge of China's role in the world advance your goals
As a citizen of Nigeria, I have come across a number of collapsed structures such as bridges, residential and industrial buildings. According to Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, about 99 percent of these structures that collapsed in Nigeria were not handled by engineers. The major cause of this includes; limited number of standard construction companies and experienced engineers, use of incompetent project supervisors, use of substandard construction materials as well as lack of regular supervision by the regulatory bodies.
In line with the above, I have an interest which correlates with the objectives of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN to promote the advancement of engineering practice, regulate construction projects and control structural failure. This can be achieved through periodic reliability analysis, that is predicting the performance of the structural system over time using the knowledge of technology and development of maintenance and rehabilitation strategy for the structures. The search for a standard construction company for my internship during my undergraduate program in civil engineering exposed me to one of the major factor causing structural failure; the large number of companies with inadequate equipment to carryout technical projects. I also observed that there is limited number of skilled and experienced engineers to supervise complex projects, although there are a lot of graduate engineers, majority of them lack the technical knowledge and skills to execute simple construction projects.
From available records, structural collapse has been a major concern, as it threatens human lives and causes hardship to the people affected. As a graduate student in Nigeria where most bridges collapse during rainy season, my experience of cancelling travel schedules due to bridge collapse with no alternative route, the hardship of people whose buildings have collapsed and my strong passion to develop my leadership skills and establish a technologically advanced construction company are the major drives propelling my interest to becoming trained and skilled in the design and construction of Highway structures or residential/industrial structures as a Schwarzman scholar.
Structural collapse is significant in Nigeria and it can be prevented through conscious intervention from the government agencies and industry groups to stem unsustainable construction practices, improve levels of conformance to and compliance with sustainable construction principles by construction industry stakeholders and the use of unqualified/incompetent professionals amongst other anomalies should be stopped. In short term, structural failure can be prevented by registering with COREN and participating actively in regulating construction practices as well as working with standard construction companies. Long term goal is to establish a standard construction company to execute quality structural projects with the knowledge and skills acquired as a Schwarzman scholar.
In conclusion, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Ltd., CCECC impacts around the world with the experience of executing foreign-aid project of China cannot be overstated. With the opportunity and relationships between China and the world provided by Schwarzman scholar program, it will give me the opportunity to learn from a broad network of experienced academic professionals in China. Attaining the skills and the platform to achieve my dreams is a possibility.
