Earlier this week, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released their collegiate list of 2026 New Faces of Civil Engineering, which recognizes up-and-coming civil engineering leaders who are prepared to tackle the modern of the civil engineering profession. As one of 10 students selected for the honor, Athena was featured on the ASCE website. Her profile appears below.
Athena Zapantis
3rd year, Johns Hopkins University
From her arrival at Johns Hopkins her freshman year, Athena Zapantis wasn’t one to shirk from a challenge. She was eager to connect with students who also enjoyed exploring the cutting edge of academic research, but the civil engineering department lacked anything organized.
That first year, Zapantis launched the Civil and Systems Engineering Reading Group and continues to lead regular meetings to read and discuss research in energy systems, transportation planning, and engineering ethics. “I have brought in my mentor from ASCE Mentor Match as a speaker, as well as faculty members from various departments to speak on their own research.”
Grateful for the benefits of mentoring from professional engineers and upper-level students, Zapantis herself now offers support to younger students through the JHU student chapter, including tutoring in lower-level classes and supporting new students on the sustainable solutions and steel bridge teams. “Mentoring young students has touched my life in a very meaningful way,” she said.
An internship mentor helped Zapantis believe in herself. She “was an engineer-in-training who looks like me. As a brown mixed woman in engineering, I know that I am not the first image that comes to mind for people when they think of an engineer. But seeing her expertise be celebrated made me confident that I, too, can be a valued, problem-solving team member.”
Zapantis is looking ahead to working in transportation engineering after a successful internship with AECOM in support of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. “I made original design comments that caught mistakes in structural engineering design and caught drafting errors that would have affected constructability.”