日批在线视频_内射毛片内射国产夫妻_亚洲三级小视频_在线观看亚洲大片短视频_女性向h片资源在线观看_亚洲最大网

 
  | Home | News| Living in China| MMS | SMS | About us | Contact us|
   
 Language Tips > 2002

Concrete Goes to College

Mix sand, and water, and powdered stone called "cement," and what do you get? As humans have known since the Roman Empire, you get concrete. In the United States alone, concrete work accounts for one-third of the 0 billion construction industry. A university in the southern state of Tennessee is mixing sand, water, cement, and four full years of classes and producing the world's first college degree in "concrete management"

Like plumbing, hairdressing, and carpentry, pouring concrete is blue-collar work. But Middle Tennessee State University, in the little city of Murfreesboro near the state capital of Nashville, offers a full, four-year concrete curriculum.

The program began in 1996 with just two students. Now there are about one hundred. Twenty young people have already graduated from the program and have well-paying jobs in the concrete industry.


Austin Cheney
Austin Cheney, a mechanical engineer by training, heads the program at Middle Tennessee State. He says like many industries, the concrete business is changing rapidly as big companies buy out small, family-owned operations. "Large corporations, they want to hire educated people to be their managers, and it changes the way the industry does business," he says. "They saw a need to be able to hire people right out of college that had a background and understanding of the technical side of the product, as well as the business side of the industry. That's really what drove the need for this program."

But is concrete complex enough a subject to justify a four-year college program?

"We're not talking about just sidewalks here," says Mr. Cheney. "We're talking about high-rise buildings. We're talking about bridges. The product is getting more and more complicated all the time with both chemical admixtures and mineral admixtures that are added to change the properties to meet the requirements of a given situation. The other thing is, the people have to have a business background as well."

One of Austin Cheney's students is Ben Petzinger, from the western state of Idaho. He has worked as a construction laborer but has his sights set on a lucrative management career.

Petzinger: "We're light years ahead of any other program that offers any training in concrete."
Landphair: "Do you ever get any teasing from your fellow students about your curriculum, compared with philosophy and history?"
Petzinger: "I think there's a misnomer [a false impression] out there that if you study a material like concrete, it's almost a vocational-tech kind of a thing. Concrete's the most widely used building product in the world, and it's an industry that's a very well-kept secret. However, everybody depends on it. It's fine with me if anybody teases me about learning about concrete. I simply come back with the joke, 'What's the difference between a history major [a person who studies history in college] and a large pizza?' A large pizza can feed a family of four."

In other words, people who can combine the prestige of a college degree with the practical value of a construction skill can make a fine living. It's a message that's encouraged by the concrete industry, which helped set up the Middle Tennessee State University program and has spent about million supporting it.

Robert Garbini is president of the National Ready-Mix Concrete Association. Ready-mix concrete is the kind of fresh, wet, gray combination of ingredients you see tumbling in what are commonly called "cement mixers," as opposed to pre-cast pieces of concrete put together in factories and shipped to a job site. "Heretofore, we've not had individuals in our field who have come out with a business degree related to concrete. It has given individuals who are looking for a career another option," he says. "And they look at it, and they say, 'Well, you know, I don't need to be a tech-o [technical wizard]. If I want to be in business, I can be in business. There's a lot of opportunities there, and this is one way to get into it."

Instructor Cheney says that in addition to courses in mathematics, chemistry, and business, students in the concrete-management program take nine courses just about concrete - how to cure it, strengthen it, and make it tolerant of extreme cold or extreme heat. Students even learn how to decorate in concrete. "They can make counter tops that are just beautiful, that look like marble," he says. "They can make concrete look like stone, brick. They can stamp and color it and just do some amazing things architecturally."

Austin Cheney points out that while his students are not spending four years in college to learn to be blue-collar laborers, they do get their hands dirty, both in the laboratory and on construction sites, where they literally get the feel of various types of concrete. "We're not in our little ivory tower," he says. But he admits his students do build a few walls between academia and the real world. They're made of good-old reliable concrete.

Ted Landphair VOA News Washington

 
Go to Other Sections
Story Tools
 
Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved

版權(quán)聲明:未經(jīng)中國日報(bào)網(wǎng)站許可,任何人不得復(fù)制本欄目內(nèi)容。如需轉(zhuǎn)載請與本網(wǎng)站聯(lián)系。
None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
 

 

主站蜘蛛池模板: 成人免费网站视频 | 午夜激情视频在线观看 | 亚洲一区久久久 | 爱射综合 | 亚洲一区二区影院 | 人人97 | 高清免费av | 日韩www | 五月综合色婷婷 | 日本亲子乱子伦xxxx50路 | 一区二区日韩精品 | 插菊综合网 | 亚洲最新中文字幕 | 九九热国产视频 | 国产做受视频 | 亚洲欧美另类一区 | 九九综合网 | 日本黄页免费 | 国产高清精品在线 | 一级片在线观看免费 | 韩国精品一区二区三区 | 玖玖久久 | 日本不卡在线视频 | 亚洲日本中文字幕在线 | 国产视频一 | 黄色福利在线观看 | 九九精品在线播放 | 撸大师在线观看 | 自拍偷拍另类 | 欧美国产日韩视频 | 欧美久久久久久久久久久久 | 亚洲精品一区二区三区在线播放 | 日韩中文字幕视频 | 亚洲精品观看 | 青青草黄色 | 免费av网站在线 | 中文字幕第一区综合 | 亚州男人的天堂 | 国产日韩在线观看视频 | 国产91在线播放精品91 | 午夜av一区二区三区 |