 Civil
engineering is a perfect career for Stephanie Hughes. Not only does she
enjoy construction, but she likes to travel. Born in Germany while her military
father was stationed there, Stephanie had toured most of Europe by the time
she was 12. Her only regret is that she was not old enough to really appreciate
what she was seeing. "It's just another old church to a six year old,"
she says, laughing.
Her father retired from active duty when Stephanie was 12 and the family
located in Wheat Ridge, a suburb of Denver. Although she stayed in Colorado
through her graduation from Colorado School of Mines in 1994, Stephanie
believes the yen to travel "got into her veins" as a child. In
1995, she moved to Framingham, Massachusetts to work for Perini Corporation
on the "Big Dig" in Boston. While with Perini, she worked on a
cut-and-cover tunnel under Atlantic Avenue. She took on a variety of duties,
including handling claims and serving as a field engineer for support of
excavation.
In 1997, Stephanie went to work for DeMatteo Construction Company on the
South Boston Interchange. The cut-and-cover tunnel project was a joint venture
with DeMatteo/Flatiron Structures/Interbeton. It turned out to be a joint
venture in more ways than one, because Stephanie met Flatiron's project
manager Brent Hughes and the couple soon got married and started a joint
venture of their own.
Stephanie and Brent moved from Boston to Misener's Hovensa Coker Dock project
on St. Croix, where Brent was project manager and she was a project engineer.
After a year of working hard all week and SCUBA diving on Sundays, the couple
finished up the project and are currently in Longmont. While waiting another
assignment, Stephanie is working in the estimating department and hoping
she'll soon get to travel again. |