Name: Jason Edwards
Hometown: Rock Hill
Year: Senior
Major: Civil Engineering
High School: Rock Hill

Jason Edwards, 20, chose civil engineering as a career field because he wanted to go into something "concrete." Puns aside, Edwards said he liked the fact that engineering is detail-oriented, math-based and rooted in facts.

As a child, Edwards was always building objects or "little contraptions," as he describes them, from erector sets. A little encouragement from his uncle, a civil engineer in Tennessee, and a love for the Gamecocks steered him toward Carolina's College of Engineering and Computing, a choice Edwards said he would recommend heartily to other prospective students.

"I've had great experience with many my professors," he says. "All my teachers have been top professors who have had some sort of experience in their fields and who are able to show us the relevance of what we're learning and of what we'll do on a job site. That's important."

Edwards says his classroom experience also has prepared him for some impressive internships.

He has worked with the S.C. Department of Transportation working with inspectors and the IMDC Consulting and Engineering firm in Birmingham, Ala.

Edwards, who has compiled an impressive 3.9 grade-point average, is a member of Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society and has completed the university's Emerging Leaders Program.

After he graduates in December, he hopes to attend law school and go into a legal field that will utilize his engineering knowledge.