32 participate in Order of the Engineer

Pledging their skills and knowledge to the public good and promising to practice with integrity and respect, 32 engineering graduates took part in the Order of the Engineer ceremony in the Volstorff Ballroom on the South Dakota State University campus.

The noon event attracted more than 210 guests. It followed the 10 a.m. May 4 graduation for the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering at the Dacotah Bank Center in east Brookings.

The ceremony is open to any graduate of the college’s mechanical, civil, electrical and agriculture and biosystems engineering programs.

Grant Sternhagen, the college’s representative in the Students’ Association, gave participants a history of the order. The first order began in Canada in 1953. A U.S. version was formed in Ohio with the first ceremony taking place June 4, 1970. From there, it has spread to hundreds of U.S. universities. 

Each participant signs a creed and receives a plain stainless-steel ring to be placed on the small finger of the working hand. 

Yucheng Liu, head of the mechanical engineering department, said, “The ring, a symbol of pride, prestige, honor and professionalism among all engineering in the United States, also serves as a reminder to the engineer of our obligation to society. The ring … will say to all who see it, ‘Here is an engineer, possessed of a publicly avowed dedication to the profession and the public they serve.’” 

The participating graduates:

Ag and Biosystems: Jacob Thompson

Civil: Russell Brummer, Acadia Folkerts, Jodi Lubiba and Ahmed Nazir Malik

Mechanical: Delaney Baumberger, Adam Breuer, John Christianson, Adam Cowl, Alan Cowl, Marcus Decker, Sianne Downes, Ethan Ellender, Grant Handel, Adam Karschnik, Cory Kleve, Hunter McMath, Daniel Messerli, Shelby Mueller, Justin Potts, Alex Schaar, Riley Spilde, Dylan Stephens, Osama Tasneem, Connor Tigges and Hunter Wallster

Electrical: Leif Bredeson, Devon Glisar, Cristian Hernandez, Cole Hulstein, Cameron Jensen and Jocelyn Tillman