Student Leadership Summit: USC ITE’s experience at Cal Poly SLO

From February 2nd-4th, USC ITE members traveled to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo to participate in the 10th annual ITE Western District Student Leadership Summit! Starting early Friday morning, the members boarded the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner from Union Station to SLO, accompanied by UCLA’s ITE Chapter. In SLO, we were met by a San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority (SLO RTA) bus that took us to our first event - The Bus Roadeo. The Bus Roadeo consisted of a tour of the SLO RTA facilities and a mini bus driver competition. We were then given a tour around downtown SLO by members of Cal Poly SLO ITE that ended in a social pizza dinner to close out the first day of SLS. 

USC and UCLA ITE members on the Pacific Surfliner	Students looking under a SLORTA bus

Day two started early at Cal Poly SLO’s campus. After breakfast, we listened to several presentations from current and past Cal Poly SLO ITE leaders, including chapter co-founder Ray Davis, and the founders of SLS. From there, the group participated in a large networking event that gave students and professionals the chance to meet others from different chapters and stages of ITE. The entire group was split up for two rounds of technical presentations from professionals in the field. After a provided lunch, students broke up again for in-depth labs that applied our skills to real-world scenarios of community engagement, planning, and engineering.

Brian Ray, Manager at Sunrise Transportation Strategies, presenting to students	Students and professionals participating in a networking activity

The afternoon featured a career fair that allowed students to talk with representatives from transportation companies, including LADOT, Caltrans, DKS, Econolite, and more! During this time, students were given the opportunity to get their headshots taken by USC ITE’s very own faculty advisor – Prof. Shen. The night ended with a journey to a wonderful banquet featuring keynote speaker Randy Iwasaki. We were all able to mingle and get to know our fellow ITE members more before finishing the eventful day.

Members speaking with LADOT at the Career Fair	Keynote speaker Randy Iwasaki

The last day of SLS was again held on SLO’s campus, starting with a presentation from keynote speaker Monique Chen of CR Associates, which then transitioned into a career panel including Meagan Chan, Sowmya Chandrasekhar, Joshua McNeill, and Zaki Mustafa. We then were split up to enjoy more presentations from famous transportation names such as Ray Delahanty from CityNerd, Robert Sanders a.k.a. Road Guy Rob, and Dave Amos from City Beautiful! The group was then brought back together for a thoughtful closing ceremony emceed the conference organizers and advisors, as well as the 2024 ITE International President, John Davis.

USC ITE members giving an update on our chapter	Presenter Rob Sanders (Road Guy Rob) with students

Special thanks to Cal Poly SLO ITE for organizing this wonderful event! Additionally, thank you to everyone who participated in making this year's SLS so special, including all the presenters, companies, professionals, and, of course, the students!