Civil Engineering

Paul Gennett — 2021 Herbert Busching Outstanding Senior Award

Stephen Paul Gennett is the recipient of the 2021 Herbert Busching Outstanding Senior Award. Paul, a member of the Clemson Honors College graduated, with a cumulative GPA of 3.93. As you read of his accomplishments, you will realize that Paul has been involved in many different Clemson experiences as an undergraduate and is well deserving of this award.

Paul was a member of Clemson Engineer’s for Developing Countries for 3 semesters before Covid-19 indefinitely sidelined the project. As a member of the Boucan Carre project team, he researched properties of various lightweight grouts and also updated the research website.

During his undergraduate tenure, he participated in several internships:

  • Research Assistant—Spring 2018. working with Drs. Andrew Pyle and Darren Linvill to determine the efficacy of a popular active shooter response training video. Paul helped determine the project’s direction, assisted in the implementation of a survey, and wrote portions of the resulting conference proceedings.
  • In 2017, Paul worked on EUREKA!, with Drs. Andrew Pyle and Darren Linvill on a project to study institutional responses to the 2017 Executive Order 13769, commonly known as the “travel ban.” He collected responses and other data from a random sample of 300 American colleges and universities. After data collection, he assisted Drs. Pyle and Linvill in coding the responses and created a research poster to communicate the results at the EUREKA! poster forum. Ultimately, the peer-reviewed paper went on to receive the Best Faculty Paper Award at the Southern States Communication Association 2018 conference. Paul continued working with Dr. Andrew Pyle becoming a research assistant to build upon the EUREKA! project. For this project, he collected and analyzed mission and value statements from the 300 universities in the sample and found 14 overarching values. Paul also created a code for these values and worked with Dr. Pyle to apply this code to the mission and value statements of each university in the sample. Several papers are being written based on the data and analysis.
  • Project Engineer Intern—Wharton-Smith Construction. Summer and Winter 2019. As a project engineer intern, he contributed to the Vest Water Treatment Plant Upgrades project and assisted in other ongoing projects during the summer and winter of 2019. In the office, Paul used drawings and specifications to determine necessary supplies/services, sought quotes from vendors, drew up contract documents representing over $350,000 of services while remaining under budget, and created submittals to ensure purchases matched specification requirements. In the field, he assisted the superintendent in taking field measurements and showing subcontractors the site.
  • Summer Analyst—Kimley-Horn, Summer 2020. As a summer analyst, he worked with mentors to produce due diligence reviews and civil site layout deliverables for numerous projects while simultaneously competing with a team of six interns in the Kimley-Horn Summer Design Challenge. For the challenge, the team completed preliminary design of a $104 million mixed-use site dubbed “Olympic Heights” and presented the project to a regional board of judges, and took first place and advanced to the Southeast Region in the national competition. The team presented alongside eight regional winners to a national panel and won first place at the national level.

Honors and Awards

  • Top Faculty Paper Award, Southern States Communication Association. 2018.
  • Herbert W. Busching Outstanding Junior Award. 2020.
  • Paul was a Dixon Global Policy Scholar. In early 2018, he completed a written application and interview process to become one of twelve Dixon GPS Scholars for that year. In May of 2018, the Honors College funded a ten day trip to Paris, France and Berlin, Germany to study the history of these countries from 1870 until now. The scholars toured museums and attended lectures at universities in both cities to learn more about the history, politics, and culture of the region. Back at Clemson, the group completed two discussion-based classes to apply the experiences to contemporary American politics.

Student Organizations

  • Chi Epsilon, Civil Engineering Honors Society. As treasurer, he was in charge of collecting dues, running fundraisers, planning social events, and completing various other leadership tasks.
  • Clemson Running Club: As a member of the running club, Paul volunteered weekly at local elementary schools.

Paul has accepted a position at Kimley-Horn in developmental services starting this July and he is looking forward to see what the future has in store!

CONGRATULATIONS PAUL!