Kevin Thomas, who works out of the San Diego, Calif. office of the Los Angeles District, tries to get the attention of college students during the HENAAC College Bowl Draft Selection session at the 2007 HENAAC Convention held in San Diego. Students from colleges across the country had the opportunity to interview and learn about career opportunities with the Corps during the convention.

Kevin Thomas, a project engineer at the San Diego Project Office, was the coach for the Army Corps of Engineers. Thomas said he didn’t know exactly what to expect when he arrived.

“I’d heard they were a high energy, high morale, highly motivated group,” he said. “But I didn’t really know the group dynamics.” That changed quickly.

Part GE College Bowl, part BCS Championship Bowl, the competition was a high-energy exercise designed to demonstrate excellence, innovation, integrity, entrepreneurship and collaboration. Teams of up to 10 members developed solutions to a variety of scenarios.
 
During Gadgets and Gizmos, teams had to invent a multi-function gadget for use in outer space. The Corps team designed a space blanket that served a variety of needs. Among those needs the hypothetical blanket covered were hygiene, an environmental system for extra-vehicular activity use, a teleportation device for long distance travel and emotional needs for lonely space travelers with a comfort-hug.

During the Coolest Place in Space competition, the team developed a self-sufficient extra-terrestrial community that met energy, infrastructure, education, recreation and medical needs. The team members presented the idea to each other as marketer to a potential customer panel. In this way, the Corps team was unique among the teams that presented. Other teams presented only to the observing panel of judges.

“It was a great experience,” said Elvis Garay, an office engineer from Creech AFB, who worked with Thomas and Corps assistant coach George Alcala. “It provided the students with an opportunity to do now many of the things they’re going to have to do when they enter the professional job market. The résumé writing exercise was especially valuable, in that it taught them that they have to market themselves to a specific company and a specific position.”

That aspect was also evident during the Family Feud-type competition designed to expose students to the realities of the workplace by answering a series of questions regarding what the professional world presents in areas of job security, advancement and responsibilities.

In the main auditorium, the several hundred students emitted the energy one would expect to find at a South Beach night club, but without the alcohol. Flashing lights, heavy-beat disco music, pumping fists and floating balloons filled the air as teams shouted their individual chants in a back and forth manner reminiscent of a World Cup Soccer game. That aspect was not lost on Thomas.
 
“The team jelled quickly,” he said. “Our participation as coaches decreased with each exercise, as members took on more responsibility. The most interesting to witness was that students who were shy and quiet in the beginning developed the confidence and skills to lead group presentations by the end.”