Everything the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) does is about education. NAPA and its members have piled up some accomplishments in the educational arena that are truly extraordinary.
A very timely example is NAPA’s support for the new transportation exhibition, “America on the Move,” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. With the idea of NAPA raising money from its members to donate to the Smithsonian, some might have asked, “Why would contractors want to donate their hard-earned money to the Smithsonian?”
There are several great answers to that question. The most important one for NAPA is that “America on the Move” gives our industry an opportunity to influence the next generation of potential workers. Work force recruitment is a tough issue for contractors, and our partnership with the Smithsonian will help us in that regard.
For at least the next 20 years, four million visitors a year—most of them young Americans—will delight in, and learn from, this state-of-the-art interactive exhibit. Websites will extend the messages to a worldwide audience. Check out the Smithsonian’s website at www.americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove for a fabulous experience.
NAPA also reaches out to people who are currently in the industry with training programs and conferences. The educational programs at the 2003 edition of the World of Asphalt Show and Conference provided asphalt-specific training to more people than at any single event ever before. This year again, the People, Plants and Paving training program, the APA Asphalt Pavement Conference and the brand-new Environment, Health and Safety Symposium will offer practitioner-oriented education to a wide audience. A quarry tour and warm-mix asphalt demo will provide information that won’t be available anywhere else.
Educational initiatives are nothing new for NAPA’s members. Back in the mid-1980s it became apparent that the industry had some basic needs that were not being met. There was no hot-mix asphalt (HMA) textbook. Few civil engineering courses were offered by colleges, and few professors had the knowledge that would have enabled them to teach asphalt courses. The industry had no infrastructure for reaching out to college students.
Today all that has changed, thanks to the NAPA members who donated more than $10 million to the NAPA Research and Education Foundation (NAPAREF). That initial war chest endowed the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) at Auburn University, Ala.—today the world’s leading institution for HMA research. NCAT’s contributions to the industry include the first-ever HMA textbook and the ignition oven for determining the asphalt content of a mix.
Every year NCAT conducts a professor training course, and 272 professors from 48 states have gained the knowledge and skills to teach HMA technology at their colleges and universities.
Growing alongside NCAT has been the NAPAREF scholarship program. To date, more than $8 million has been contributed or pledged to the program. Between the program’s inception in 1994 and the close of this academic year, approximately 920 students will have received assistance in completing their higher education.
One of the few requirements NAPAREF makes for the scholarship recipients is that they must take a course in HMA. At least 12 civil engineering programs have added HMA courses to their curricula as a direct result of scholarships being offered.
All of this is impressive, but we aren’t going to stop here. NAPA will continue to be creative about reaching out to the industry and beyond with education. We’re on a mission.
