Profile: Meet Eskender Said

"The relaxed atmosphere on campus, the helpful attitude of the professors and their valuable advice has made my experience at PSU very enjoyable and will certainly contribute to my ability to have a successful career in engineering."

Eskender Said, Civil and Environmental Engineering (2003)

Eskender Said was class valedictorian at Jefferson High School in 1997 and enrolled at PSU as a freshman. He graduated in June 2003 with a degree in civil and environmental engineering and with, as he says, "the background and experience I need to meet the challenges of my first engineering job."

Eskender came to PSU because he, "was attracted by the urban campus atmosphere, top notch professors in structural engineering and the opportunities to work on nationally important projects."

Said spent two summers as an intern with TriMet, Portland's regional transportation authority, where he was given the opportunity to work on the $350 million Interstate Max (IMAX) construction project. He did field inspections for Quality Assurance and Control, and evaluated the effects of vibration due to construction on historic buildings along the light rail route.

Eskender also spent time in his last few months at Portland State striving to develop a computer program that would generate a coefficient for eccentrically loaded bolt groups, and worked on campus as a grader for Professors Carol Hasenberg and Kent Lall.

Eskender laid the foundation for his professional career through activities in the PSU student chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Society of Black Engineers, the Association of African Students and the campus Black Cultural Affairs Board.