WHEREAS, Engineers use their professional, scientific, and technical knowledge and skills in creative and innovative ways to solve problems; and

WHEREAS, Engineers have helped meet the major technological challenges of our time, from rebuilding damaged infrastructure after natural disasters, to designing an information superhighway that will speed our country into the future; and

WHEREAS, Engineers are a crucial link in transforming scientific discoveries into useful products, such as the creation of lifesaving biomechanics to help us live longer; and

WHEREAS, Engineers plan, design, and direct the manufacture or construction of nearly everything with which we interact on a daily basis, from computer microchips to highways, roads, and bridges, residential and commercial buildings, to automobiles and airplanes; and

WHEREAS, Engineers are needed today and in the near future to design and develop crucial infrastructure, including, but not limited to, levees and waterways, roads and bridges, and universities and schools; and

WHEREAS, Not only is a diverse and vigorous engineering workforce needed, but we also need to encourage young men and women to pursue the field of engineering as a career; and

WHEREAS, In 2010, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine issued a followup report entitled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited,” highlighting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education as a cornerstone to improving America’s global prosperity through innovation; and

WHEREAS, The same report documented that fewer young people are choosing the fields of science and engineering at a critical time when an aging workforce is on the verge of retiring; and

WHEREAS, The 2007 National Academy of Sciences report entitled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” highlighted the worrisome trend that fewer students are now focusing on engineering in college at a time when increasing numbers of today’s engineers are nearing retirement; and

WHEREAS, A 2007 report by the California Council on Science and Technology determined that California faces a persistent and critical shortage of fully prepared mathematics and science teachers; and

WHEREAS, National Engineers Week provides professional engineers, community groups, teachers, parents, and students with the opportunity to interact with and learn about the many facets of the engineering profession through special educational programs; and

WHEREAS, National Engineers Week aims to increase the understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers, and it also aims to promote literacy in mathematics and science; and

WHEREAS, National Engineers Week is celebrated during the week of George Washington’s birthday to honor the contributions that our first President of the United States, a military engineer and land surveyor, made to engineering; now, therefore, be it