This Wednesday night, I had the awesome opportunity to attend the 36th annual Viterbi Awards! The Viterbi Awards is an event hosted every year by the Viterbi School of Engineering that recognizes outstanding members of the engineering community as a whole as well as alumni who have made a positive impact post graduation. Different companies buy tables at the events, and several students were selected to sit at each table! It was an honor to be invited, and I had a wonderful night!
The venue for the event was the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and it was black tie optional. It was so fun seeing so many people I typically see inside the classroom dressed to the nines for the evening. The evening started with about an hour of networking and mingling with friends and the different industry professionals there. It was great seeing some past Viterbi students who graduated and were at the event representing different companies!
My favorite part of the evening was the different speeches that went along with the various awards given out. Dean Yortsos opened the night with a hilarious speech that ended with him taking a selfie on stage. I loved hearing Dr. Wanda Austin, President and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation speak after receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award since Aerospace is a company I am highly interested in in terms of potential career paths.
For dinner, I sat at the table purchased by Bay Eco, which is an environmental engineering company based out of Beijing with two company representatives, a few environmental engineers, and several other chemical engineering friends. Overall, the night was fantastic, and I hope I get the opportunity to attend again next year!