Four Duke CEE alumni from the Class of 2006 reunite to swap unforgettable undergrad memories, share wildly different career paths, and offer practical advice for future students.
20 years ago, the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) class of 2006 went out into the world as fresh graduates. This past April, many of them returned to Duke for their class reunion — and they had stories to tell.
The Class of 2006 has remained close since graduation, even having an ongoing group chat that buzzed with activity as reunion weekend drew near. Four of these alumni with strikingly different careers — Clare Hawthorne, Will Senner, Ashleigh Hales, and Serdar Selamet — gathered in the Bryan Center podcast studio to chat about their student days and how their experiences shaped where they are now.
“We all started in exactly the same place in exactly the same rooms in Hudson Hall and all ended up in really, really different places,” said Hawthorne, who now runs an advisory practice in New York City to help scaling technology companies.
The friends shared their professional journeys spanning construction leadership, business consulting, site civil engineering management, and wildfire structural engineering research. They also look back on formative moments during their time in undergrad, including exams that made them question their sanity, faculty who took time to look out for them, and research experiences that sparked lifelong interests.
Beyond nostalgia, the alumni highlighted the enduring skills that they credit to Duke, including critically approaching problems that might have incomplete information, designing systems that make risk visible before it becomes dangerous, and committing fully to whatever efforts they pursue. They also pointed out that, in addition to the amazing community that was their tight-knit cohort, there were many opportunities at Duke to enrich their lives across & beyond campus such as study abroad programs and (of course) the intense basketball scene.
Their advice to future students is simple: explore early, try new opportunities, and remember that a civil engineering degree can be a launchpad for a variety of career trajectories.
Also, don’t be scared to talk to alumni — after all, they were once just like you, and you might learn a lot from the things they have to say.
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