Women in Construction Week: Taylor Carter
UA Little Rock senior Taylor Carter is looking forward to her future career as a project engineer once she graduates from UA Little Rock in May.
“I plan to be a project engineer for a general contractor,” she said. “I would like to work in Little Rock or anywhere in Arkansas would be great, and I’m also looking forward to traveling as the construction industry has a lot of opportunities to do so.”
Carter will be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering and construction management. As part of preparation for her career, she’s had multiple internships at great companies around Little Rock, including CDI Contractors, Iconic Consulting Group, and Platinum Drywall.
“Part of the degree is that we get 800 hours of work experience before we graduate,” Carter said. “I wanted to get experience from everywhere so I would know what I would do in my career. At CDI Contractors, I worked as a project engineer, field engineer, and with the Pre-Construction Estimating Group. I worked on a project at the UAMS Generator Building that had giant generators that produced massive amounts of energy. I had never worked on anything like that in my life, and it was amazing.”
On campus, she is a student leader who serves as a student ambassador in UA Little Rock’s College of STEM, secretary of the Society of Women Engineers, and secretary of Arkansas General Contractors. She’s also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Sigma Lambda Chi Construction Honor Society.
When she’s not interning or studying, Carter likes to lend a hand to good causes. She’s served as a volunteer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Museum of Discovery, Arkansas Foodbank, Wildwood Park for the Arts, Chenal Elementary School, and UA Little Rock STEM events.
Carter feels that it’s especially important to honor women who have been successful in the construction industry to inspire current students like herself.
“I really love that there are women professors in construction management because they can understand your point of view and perspective on certain things and simply make your college career so much better by having these role models like you,” Carter said. “Professor Dr. Anne Turner has been so helpful throughout my whole college experience. I think that it’s great that we talk about Women in Construction Week. It’s good to expose everybody to the fact that there are women in construction who are successful and can get the job done.”
